GU women’s swim team caps terrific weekend with home CAC win over Hood

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The past three days have been busy ones for the
Gallaudet University women’s swim team as the Bison earned two
victories and celebrated the program’s 50th anniversary. On Sunday,
Gallaudet closed out its home regular-season schedule with a 92-82
victory against Capital Athletic Conference foe Hood College before a
large and supportive crowd on Senior Day at the Field House pool.

Junior Carlisle Robinson (Carmel, Ind.) stole the show with three
first-place finishes as she accounted for 30 percent of the Bison
team point total. Robinson started her day with the 200-yard IM where
she touched the wall first with a time of 2:26.75. Two events later,
she was first in the 100-yard freestyle (1:00.60), three seconds
ahead of Hood’s swimmer Aleece Groom. Robinson’s final event was the
500-yard freestyle where she crushed the field with a time of
6:07.18.

Senior Rachel Steingieser (New Market, Md.) had an impressive
performance as she finished second in the 200-yard freestyle
(2:25.38), third in the 100-yard freestyle (1:07.71) and fifth in the
100-yard breaststroke (1:25.58). Gallaudet coach Bill Snape paid
tribute to the Bison senior swimmers on the day including women’s
swimmer Katie Day (St. Elmo, Ill.) for their dedicated service to the
program.

Junior Misella Tomita (Kahului, Hawaii) was the other Bison with a
first-place showing as she was first to finish in the 100-yard
backstroke as she edged Hood’s Taryn Scafide by two seconds with a
time of 1:16.44. Tomita also had two second-place finishes in the
50-yard freestyle (28.70 seconds) and the 100-yard butterfly
(1:23.58).

Freshman Sara Moore (Charleston, WVa.) finished second in the
100-yard freestyle (14:47.86) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:18.98)
and was third in the 200-yard IM (2:51.07) behind Robinson. Fellow
freshman Tong Song (Beijing, China) had three third-place finishes in
the 200-yard free (2:28.20), 500-yard freestyle (6:39.79) and the
100-yard breaststroke (1:19.13).

The Bison moved one step closer to ending a long drought in program
history with today’s win. Gallaudet needs one more victory to finish
the regular-season with a .500 record which hasn’t been accomplished
in 19 seasons. The last time Gallaudet finished with a .500 or better
record came during the 1990-91 season when most of the current roster
wasn’t even born. GU will have a strong chance to earn win number six
on Wednesday, January 27, as the Bison travel to Baltimore to face
the College of Notre Dame in a non-conference meet that begins at 6
p.m.