FAIRFAX, VA --- This past weekend, the Howard Bison swimmers faced their fastest all-around competition of the year at the George Mason Patriot Invitational.  From Thursday through Saturday, the Bison raced in the preliminary-final format, earning 46 individual, season-best times and another five best times in their relay events.

The Bison earned all of their points for the weekend on the relays.   Both teams' finest event came on their final event of the competition with the 400-yard freestyle relay.  For the Lady Bison, the team of seniors Janai Ederaine (Corona, CA) and Ashley Douglas (Missouri City, TX) combined with freshman Ayana Cox (Atlantic City, NJ) and sophomore Benta Horton-Gee (Baltimore, MD) to swim an exciting, culminating time of 3:40.11, beating three other teams by 0.52 seconds or less and dropping their season seed-time by over 18 seconds. 

For the men, their 400-yard freestyle relay team of juniors Dexter Brown (Pearland, TX), Benjamin Skelding (Palmdale, CA) and Trent Popovich (Morro Bay, CA) gave way to the anchoring freshman Jared Miller (Washington, DC).  They swam to a final time of 3:20.04, dropping their seed-time by over 24 seconds.

Both the women and men's 400-yard freestyle relays finished in 13^th place, each earning 8 points.  The Bison men finished the competition with 38 points while the Lady Bison earned 18 points.

Other highlights included Miller finishing in 19^th place in the 100-yard freestyle with a season-best mark of 48.19.  Miller also now finds himself fifth all-time in Bison Swimming history in the 200-yard backstroke with his time of 2:00.39, good for 27^th place.  Skelding earned six season-best marks on the weekend, the highlight coming with a 25^th place finish in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:30.29. 

The Bison will next be in action on Saturday, December 7 when they travel across Northwest DC to face the Georgetown Hoyas at 1pm.