WASHINGTON (January 13, 2023) - Howard University's women's and men's swimming and diving teams resume the 2022-23 schedule Saturday, Jan. 14 when they host the UMBC Retrievers. The swimming portion of the meet gets underway at Burr Gym Pool at 1 p.m., while the divers will compete at nearby Catholic University.
Bison Nation can follow all the action on NEC Front Row.
Saturday's meet will mark the first matchup between the teams since January 4, 2020, and first time in the series Howard has hosted the Retrievers at The Burr. UMBC and Howard competed for seven consecutive years before then and the Retrievers have won the past 11 meets (seven men/six women) over the Bison.
Howard has not competed since December 3 when they competed in the H2ounds Invitational.
For the men, the Bison left off with conference bests in the 400 Free (3:04.46) and 800 Free (6:50.16) Relays.
Howard went on to set a school record in the 400 Medley Relay, consisting of Miles Simon (Atlanta), Mark-Anthony Beckles (Chaguanas, Trinidad & Tobago), Darin Johnson (Atascocita, Texas), Taj Benton (Baltimore). The performance also led the conference at the end of the year.
Other conference leading performances included Beckles in the 200 Free (1:41.74), Luke-Kennedy Thompson (Nassau, Bahamas) in the 500 Free (4:37.27; B-Cut), Ty Triche (Humble, Texas) in the 1650 Free (16:40.84; NCAA B-Cut), Simon in the 100 Back (48.53; NCAA B-Cut), 50 Fly (22.86; NICB) and 100 Fly (48.58; NCAA B-Cut), Johnson in the 200-Breaststroke (2:07.02) and Benton in the 200 Fly (1:54.76).
L. Thompson recently represented the Bahamas in the 16th FINA World Swimming Championships, hosted in Australia. During competition, the senior standout set two new national Bahamian records in the 400 Free and 200 Free.
On the women's side, the Bison left off making a splash in the record books. Standout first-year Zuilda Nwaeze (Columbia, Md.) set a school record with her finish in the 500 Free with a time of 5:06.13. The performance set her atop the conference leaderboard in the event.
Freshman Skylar Debanm (Chandler, Ariz.) set a school best swimming the 1650 Free in 17:51.93.
Fountain put on an exciting performance in a nail-biting 50 Free, swimming her season best of 23.78 leading the Northeast Conference.
Senior Courtney Connolly (White Lake, Mich.)rounded out the conference leading performances with her effort in the 100-Butterfly (57.90).
NEXT UP: The Bison close out their home slate Saturday, January 28th as they host Catholic University on Senior Day at 1PM.
For more information, visit the Bison Athletics website at www.HUBison.com.
