Black Bears wrap up Dartmouth Invitational

HANOVER, N.H. -- The Black Bears wrapped up their second and final day at the Dartmouth Invitational Saturday morning. Maine women entered the day at 167 points and ended the event with 399.5 points and a fourth place finish. The Maine men entered the day with 77 points and finished with 195 points and a fifth place finish.

Top finishes for the women included a fourth place finish by Caitlin Shelley (Charlottesville, Va.) in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:08.85. Shelley later followed that swim with another fourth place finish in the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of  2:27.74. Erica Smrcina (North Falmouth, Mass.) followed the effort with a sixth place finish of her own in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 1:00.18. Later in the event, in the 200 yard butterfly, Lauren Thornbrough (San Diego, Calif.) swam herself to a third place finish in a time of 2:11.24. Thornbrough then followed that effort with a fifth place finish in the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 5:15.74.

In the women's only diving event of the day, Kara Caposella (Greenwhich, Conn.) landed Maine a fifth place finish in the 3 meter dive with a score of 203.35.

The men managed to work their way to a few top finishes of their own. Heading the effort with the Maine men's top finish was Brian Landry (Yorktown, Va.), who finished eighth in the 200 yard breaststroke in a time of 2:15.53. Jeremy Bender (St. Paul, Minn.) then added two top ten finishes of his own, recording a ninth place finish in the 200 yard butterfly, in a time of 2:00.84 and a tenth place finish in the 400 yard IM in a finishing time of 4:19.52.

The Maine men also notched a tenth place finish in the 800 yard freestyle relay with a combined time of 7:23.38. Team members included; Andrew Meehan (Brewer, Maine), Robbie Bickford (Milford, Maine), Michael Caposella (Riverside, Conn.) and Jeremy Bender.

Maine women will be back in action Friday Feb. 4 at 5:00 pm in Durham New Hampshire when they match up against the University of New Hampshire in the regular season finale.

Both men and women will then be headed to the America East Championships in Baltimore, Md. Feb 17-20.


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