Aqua-Bison open 2007-08 slate with two team records

WASHINGTON, DC--The Gallaudet University Men and Women Aqua-Bison opened up its 2007-08 campaign with a pair of losses to Salisbury University and University of Mary Washington, two Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) powerhouses.  Despite the losses, the team surprised many with some of their fast swims, including two team records and several individual first place finishes.

Freshman Jimmy McGowan led the way for Gallaudet, winning the 100 backstroke versus Salisbury in a school record time of 59.80. McGowan was joined by teammates Michael Hubbs, Ryan Kobylarz and Daniel DiDonna in smashing the school 200 Medley Relay record in 1:50.20.  Hubbs also won the 100
breaststroke against Salisbury (1:06.28), just missing his own school mark. The only individual double winner of the day for the Aqua-Bison was freshman sensation Carlisle Robinson who just missed a record in the 200 IM (2:20.13), added a win in the 100 Backstroke versus Salisbury (1:06.47), as well as a solid performance in the 100 Breaststroke (1:18.18).   The "Fab Five Women", including Robinson, paced the female squad: senior co-captain Kandace Morris went 28.07 in the 50 Free, Marissa Larson finished the 100 Free in 1:04.46, with Katie Day and Jodi Winkelmann putting in fine freestyle performances in the 200, 500 and 1000 events.

"The competition doesn't get any easier against Marymount and York next weekend," said Gallaudet Head Coach Bill Snape.  "But we are clearly getting competitive in some events with the best teams in the conference and that is a good sign.  Our ultimate focus remains improving every day/week, building
toward huge time drops by theconference championships in February," he concluded.   "About half of our times today were team bests, which is great by itself but even more impressive given that it was our first meet of the season and we have been training relatively hard."

Jimmy McGowan prepares to launch into the backstroke. In 59.8 seconds he would break the previous school record in the 100-back.

Kandace Morris bares her teeth as she flies in the Butterfly. 

An Aqua-Bison in the heat of competition.