Gallaudet swim team earns two victories in one evening

Roanoke, VA (Jan. 12) -- Nineteen Gallaudet University swimmers traveled to bucolic southern Virginia for a quad-meet with Hollins University, Salem College and Catawba College on Friday, and came out victorious twice beating both Hollins (53-32) and Salem (53-13). The success of the Bison swimmers was a complete team effort according to Gallaudet Head Coach Bill Snape.

"Many of our swimmers on break from studies just completed a grueling week of practices in which they swam over thirty miles (55,000 yards), and then traveled a long distance to swim very tough," noted Snape. "It was a nice overall effort."

Perhaps the most dramatic moment of the meet was its last, as the Gallaudet freestyle relay team of Michael Hubbs, Ryan Kobylarz, David Torres and Scott Madsen literally touch-tied their Catawba opponents at 1:40.37, the second-fastest time in Gallaudet history and just off the team record of 1:39.8. On the women's side, captain Kandace Morris, and seniors Julia Velasquez and Jessica Mikolay among many others, led a truly impressive team effort, simply overpowering their friends from Hollins and Salem.

"I apologize to all of those whose name I am not mentioning, because literally every single one made Gallaudet proud tonight," said Snape. "We were missing all three of our top women breaststrokers and one of our top male sprinters, plus we were tired from training, but we still swam well." He concluded, "We're aiming for our best Championships ever in February."

Friends, family, alumni and supporters are invited to attend the Aqua-Bison's last home meet of the season, a Sunday January 14th clash with women's power-house College of Notre Dame. Come out and cheer for the Gally swimmers as the women swimmers shoot for their fourth win of the season, their most in decades.