Record Breaking home meet for Frostburg Swimming

The Frostburg State University Swim Team competed in their first home meet against the University of Mary Washington. The last time these two teams went head-to-head, UMW won by 99 points. Frostburg has yet to win against this team. Coach Matt Briton is hoping to take home his first win on Frostburg turf. At the halfway mark, Frostburg had already broken 2 school records.

Sophomore Nathaniel Canapp shattered the 1500-meter freestyle record by a whopping 58 seconds. He now holds the school record of 16:59. However, Nate was not done; he went on to compete in the 400-meter freestyle and broke his previous record in the event. Nate now holds multiple Frostburg State University Swim records. Another star on the men’s team was junior Noah Loper. Noah took first place in the 100-meter freestyle and the 200-meter freestyle. Noah has returned this season coming off of a serious knee surgery; we are excited to see his progress as he heals completely.

On the women’s side, sophomore Kendall Hooper broke the 200-meter butterfly record of 2:39.00, the new record is now 2:31.04. She also broke the 100-meter butterfly record making it 1:06.79. Freshman Gabriela Betancourt Gonzalez, in her first official home meet at FSU, broke the 200-meter backstroke record. The new record is 2:31.42; a great start for Gabby’s career here at Frostburg. The women’s 200-meter relay consisting of Tiernan Taggart, Maree Dieterich, Kendall Hooper, and Liz Perry, tied the school record of 1:56.13; we expect them to break it later in the season.

A highlight we witnessed today at the meet was sophomore Lydia Nebiolo. Lydia currently has an ACL tear and is awaiting surgery. However, she did not plan to let it stop her today. She is a distance swimmer who competed in the 1500-meter freestyle as well as the 400-meter freestyle. Lydia came into the meet with gut-wrenching nerves; her teammates supported her all the way up until the start of her race. Despite the nerves, Lydia managed to get first place in the 1500. As she came up out of the water, tears flowed from her eyes and her teammates were quick to go congratulate her. We wish Lydia a fast recovery and a successful season.

Unfortunately, regardless of the amazing performances put on by the Frostburg Swim Team, we came up short in the end. The University of Mary Washington took home another win against Frostburg making our record with them 0-7. The final score was 167-94. Frostburg has a little less than a month to recover and prepare for their next meet at the Randolph-Macon Invitational.