For the second year in a row, both the UMBC men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have earned conference championship titles, setting dozens of school and league records on their paths to victory. These major wins on back-to-back weekends, in back-to-back years, solidify UMBC as a home of top scholar-athletes in this highly competitive arena.

UMBC News reported last week on the UMBC women’s swimming and diving America East Championship title, earned on February 14, 2016, through high-energy, record-setting performances. At that meet, Emily Escobedo ’17, psychology, received her third straight Most Outstanding Swimmer award and was named College Swimming’s National Athlete of the Week. With the fastest 200 breaststroke time in all of the NCAA this season, Escobedo (pictured below) has qualified for the NCAA Championship in March.

The men’s team won the 2016 Coastal Collegiate Sports Association Championship title on February 20 at the University of Georgia, finishing with 1,502 points, 221 points ahead of the second place finisher. UMBC posted 24 new all-time top 10 swims during the meet.

Head Coach Chad Cradock ’97, psychology, a member of UMBC’s Athletic Hall of Fame who has coached the team since 2001, was named Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year at the CCSA championships.

“Our men pulled through in a very competitive meet, ” says Cradock (pictured above, at left). “We needed everyone to compete at their best and they did. As a staff we could not be more proud.”

Ahmed Wahby ’19, engineering, earned gold in the 200 backstroke, finishing in a time of 1:46.81. Leo Endres ’16, biological sciences, earned a gold in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:58.99 and broke the UMBC record in the 100 breaststroke with a first-place time of 54.27, breaking his previous record of 54.53. Nikola Trajkovic ’18, economics, won silver in the 200 individual medley.

Gregor Spoerlein ’17, environmental science, won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:37.63 and was a second place finisher in the 100 freestyle, touching the wall in a time of 43.90. He also broke UMBC’s 50-yard freestyle record with a time of 20.05, beating his record-setting swim at last-year’s championship (20.26) and finishing first in the B finals.

Rookie Felix Richtsfeld ’19, engineering, won a silver medal in the 1,650 free with a time of 15:38.13. UMBC Athletics reports that Richtsfeld (pictured below) earned Freshman of the Meet honors, after claiming first in the 500-yard freestyle preliminary, placing second in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing second in the 1650-yard freestyle, and participating on UMBC’s 800-yard freestyle relay team, which won silver.

“Every day our men and women give their best in practice to bring UMBC a championship trophy and they did just that,” Cradock says.

The Retrievers will next compete February 26-28 at the the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships in Annapolis.

Images 1, 3 and 4: UMBC men’s swimming and diving team wins CCSA championship, February 2016. Full team (1), coaches (3), and Freshman of the Meet winner Felix Richtsfeld (4). Photos by Todd Drexler, SE Sports Media.

Image 2: UMBC swimmer Emily Escobedo ’17 at America East championship. Photo by Greg M. Cooper, America East.

Tags: Athletics