Marshall University’s Swim and Dive team defeated James Madison University at their last home meet of the season with the score 128-112, winning eight out of 13 events on Feb. 1. The Herd broke two pool records and four personal best performances during this meet.

“This was a total team effort and it was great to walk away with the win against a very good JMU program,” Head Coach Ian Walsh said. “The women are in a great position leading into conference and the staff is excited to see the group perform with some rest behind them.”

In the Women 200 Yard Medley Relay, seniors Jordyn O’Dell, Catherine Bendziewicz and Hannah Robins and junior Darby Coles broke the record by over two seconds winning their event with a 1:41.77 time.

Coming off an elbow injury, Bendziewicz won two individual events while breaking a pool record in the Women 200 Yard IM and finished in first place with 2:02.83 seconds. She also finished in first place in the Women 100 Yard Freestyle with 51.04 seconds.

“I was really nervous when I got injured that I was not going to be able to swim on my senior weekend,” Bendziewicz said. “But being able to step up and swim with my team one last time was awesome. It put a lot of confidence and energy going into conference for us.”

Coles had two individual wins as well in Women 50 Yard Freestyle with 23.34 seconds and Women 100 Yard Freestyle with 50.78 seconds.

“I knew we were all going to swim pretty fast because we were in suits,” Coles said. “We just wanted to go out and have fun since this was our last meet.”

In Women 200 Yard Freestyle, freshman Alexis Wilhoit came in first place out of seven girls, finishing at 1:52.17. Freshman Adriana Abruzzino came in third place as she finished with her personal best at 1:54.95.

“I was so proud of myself,” Wilhoit said. “I will keep working my pace and try not to stress about it but to also have fun.”

In the Women 200 Yard Butterfly, freshman Nicole Rueff came in first place with 2:03.74 seconds. Followed by Robins in second place as she also finished with a personal best of 2:03.90.

In the Women 1000 Yard Freestyle, junior Cara Martin came in third place with 10:32.88 seconds. Freshman Maria McGovern finished in fourth place, swimming her personal best with 10:39.42.

For the last event, in Women 200 Yard Freestyle Relay, Wilhoit, sophomore Regan Raines, Abruzzino, and junior Heather Sigmon finished first with 1:37.95 sec.

“We wanted to put ourselves in a position in out last meet to connect some racing in preparation for conference,” Walsh said.

The Herd is set to play at Conference USA Championships in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday Feb. 26. Stormy Randazzo can be contacted at [email protected].