Shannon Welcome anchored the CCSU 800-free relay to a second place showing on Friday, after placing sixth in the 500 freestyle. (Photo: Steve McLaughlin)

December 1, 2023

Eight Top-10 Finishes For Blue Devils On First Day Of Gompei Invitational

The 800-free relay took silver on Friday night

The Central Connecticut State swimming and diving team completed the first day of the Gompei Invitational, hosted by WPI in Worcester, MA.

The Blue Devils had six individuals swim in A-finals and place in the top-10 of their events, while both relays finished in the top-eight.

The three-day event continues Saturday morning, with swim prelims beginning at 8:30, followed by diving at 1:00 pm and swimming finals at 5:30 pm.

200 IM

Cassidy Stotler placed seventh with a swim of 2:11.79
Gabi Wroblewski was 2.32 seconds faster in the evening session, placing 13^th with a swim of 2:13.06
Morgan O'Hara was nearly three seconds faster in the evening, placing 15^th with a 2:13.98 effort
Grace young was 1.3 seconds faster in finals, finishing 33^rd with a swim of 2:22.20

50 Freestyle

Katrine O'Leary swam 24.65, .11 faster then her qualifying time, to earn seventh-place
Kelly Stotler (24.83) and Lauryn Cowing (26.01) swam in the B-Final and earned 13^th and 20^th place respectively
Gabby Spaciano captured 27^th place with an evening swim of 25.57

500 Freestyle

Shannon Welcome was six seconds faster, touching at 5:09.93, to earn sixth place
Abbey Keane was also faster in the final heat, placing 10^th at 5:10.65
Sophie Milhomens, 5:11.97, led a trio of Blue Devils in the B-Final that were all faster in the evening session, as she finished 11^th, one spot in front of Gabby Spaciano (5:14.02), while Maggie Rutledge placed 18^th with a swim of 5:17.88
Taylor Demarest was four seconds faster in the evening C-Final, touching in 25^th place with a swim of 5:25.41
Sophia Pincince (5:34.52) and Nathalie Pena (5:34.72) rounded out the CCSU entrants in 28^th and 39^th place respectively

200 Breaststroke

Abby Bacon was the Blue Devils top finisher, placing eighth with an evening swim of 2:32.92
O'Hara and Young placed 12^th and 13^th with swims of 2:30.30 and 2:31.19

100 Butterfly

Cassidy Stotler went 58.07 Friday evening, good for fourth-place
Megan Dunningan was 1:00.47 at night to earn 17^th, while Cowing went 1:02.60 to finish 29^th
Jillena Plowucha (1:01.56), Wroblewski (1:01.66) and Kyla Behrle (1:02.21) were 34-35-36 in the event

RELAYS

The Blue Devils placed eighth in the 200-medley relay, swimming 1:50.11 with the team of Katrine O'Leary, Cassidy Stotler, Megan Dunnigan and Kelly Stotler
The 800 freestyle relay team of Spaciano, Kelley Stotler, Dunnigan and Welcome finished in second place, with a time of 7:49.40

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