The University of Rhode Island swim and dive team took a tight 156-143 defeat against Northeastern University on Saturday.
Northeastern has finished in the top half of the Coastal Athletic Association in each of the last three seasons and beat the Rams by 45 points a year ago. That margin was slashed to just 13 points this year, with Rhode Island even leading 76-72 halfway through the meet.
“Anytime we go up against some of these more competitive teams, it’s a really good opportunity for our girls to have great races,” Rhode Island Head Coach Lilli Falconer-Deering said. “That’s only going to set us up for a better mindset and preparedness for our championship meet.”
Rhode Island won the opening event, scoring an early 11 points in the 200-yard medley relay. First-year swimmers Maddy Deeney and Molly Beckwith teamed with second-years Lily Mair and Emma Raser in the event.
“They’ve been training really hard,” Deering said. “I think they can see that they’re making progress in the pool. They started off with a bang and had a great start to the meet, and just overall carried that momentum as much as we could throughout the whole day.”
URI cut down its top team’s time by 1.68 seconds from its last meet, when the Rams finished in second. The improvement proved to be the difference this week, finishing 0.39 seconds ahead of Northeastern’s Relay B team.
“The blocks are always a little bit different when we’re not at home,” Deering said. “Being at home and being very comfortable on the blocks that we practice on on a daily basis is always really helpful for making those exchanges safe and effective.”
The Rams notched their only 1-2-3 sweep of the meet in the third event. Beckwith took the 200-yard freestyle, followed by fourth-year Rylee Kelly and second-year Mary McCormick.
Third-year swimmer Julianna Tyler headlined the sixth event for Rhode Island, winning the 200-yard butterfly by more than two seconds.
Fourth-year diver Olivia Winslow picked up where she left off, taking both the one-meter and three-meter dives for the second week in a row.
Her three-meter win contributed to URI’s late comeback effort, winning three of the last five events.
“I’ve always said we were kind of a second-half-of-the-meet team,” Deering said. “It was just a really good closeout to the meet; [we] definitely gave Northeastern a run for their money.”
Kelly and McCormick scored a top-two finish in the 500-yard freestyle, while a relay win wrapped up the Rams meet.
Rhody grabbed 15 of the 17 available points in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Beckwith, Mair and Raser took their second relay of the day, with third-year Avery Potyrala rounding out the team. Kelly, Deeney and first-year Chloe Robinson, along with fourth-year Abby Zadorozny, finished nearly two seconds behind to secure second place.
Swim and dive has the week off from competition, but will stay sharp during its annual Blue-White Meet. For a second year, the meet will be supplemented by returning alumni jumping back in the pool.
“The Blue-White Meet and the Alumni Meet is just an opportunity for us to have some fun together,” Deering said. “It was a really cool event last year. I’m excited for it this year; hopefully, we can continue to build it year after year.”
Looking ahead to November, URI will open the month against the University of Connecticut. On the road last year, the Rams fell 155-134 to the Huskies.
“They’re going to be a tough team for us; they always have been,” Deering said. “I’m excited to see how we’ve progressed in the last year.”
After continuing to close the gap against Northeastern this week, Connecticut could be within reach. Rhode Island is 1-16 all-time against UConn, still searching for its first home win in the series.
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