NORFOLK, V.A. - The Chowan University men's and women's swim teams debuted their 2025-2026 season at Virginia Wesleyan University on Saturday afternoon. The Hawks took top spots in 15 of the 28 combined events with both returners and newcomers having strong performances.
THE BASICS
Location: Norfolk, Virginia | Virginia Wesleyan University | Batten Activity Center
MEN'S:
Chowan 294 (2nd place)
Virginia Wesleyan 552 (1st place)
WOMEN'S:
Chowan 294 (2nd place)
Virginia Wesleyan 485 (1st place)
THE RESULTS
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The Hawks women's squad opened the 2025 season competing in the 200 yard medley, where they touched the wall at 2:01.57 for second place finish. Hasnae Idrissi (backstroke), Vanja Romic (breaststroke), Ariana Vizcaya (butterfly), and Lina Danna (freestyle) picked up 34 points in the event. The men's 200 IM relay team touched the wall a full two seconds ahead of the Marlins second place team and 14 seconds faster than the Marlins 3rd place team. Robert Liz Cabrera (backstroke), Aleksei Belolipetskii (breast stroke), Dimitrije Markovic (butterfly), and Stefan Reedy (freestyle) touched the wall for first place with a time of 1:40.43.
Emma Rooney and Michael Grenier each swam the 1,000 yard freestyle event, both claiming top spots in the event on the women's and men's side. Rooney finished up at 11:45.69 while Grenier touched the wall at 11:03.46. The Hawks went on to claim event wins in the next six events. Danna claimed the 200 yard freestyle with a finishing time of 2:13.49. Markovic claimed the 200 men's freestyle with a time of 1:48.98. Liz Cabrera claimed the top spot in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 57.21 while Romic took home the top spot in the 100 yard breaststroke with a finishing time of 1:11.67. Belolipetskii swam a sub-60 100 yard breaststroke, touching the wall at 59.71 for the top spot.
Danna, Rooney, and Elizabeth Waltz finished second (27.95), third (28.54), and sixth (34.19 respectively) in the 50 yard freestyle. On the men's side, the Hawks claimed the top three spots with Liz Cabrera (22.14), Reedy (23.43), and Quintin Mitchell (23.76) finishing 1-2-3 in the 50 yard freestyle. Newcomers Christopher Goode placed 6th with a time of 24.91 and Nasir Fernandez touched the wall at 39.52 to finish 9th.
Romic continued her strong outing with a top finish in the 100 yard freestyle. She finished with a time of 57.82 while teammate Waltz finished 6th with a time of 1:18.94. Mitchell and Goode placed 2nd (55.33) and 5th (1:00.99) in the 100 yard freestyle.
Idrissi and Reedy swam in the 200 yard backstroke, getting 3rd place and 2nd place finishes. Vizcaya took second place in the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 3:00.38. Grenier finished the same event with a top spot on the men's side in a good race, touching the wall at 2:18.24 just ahead of the Marlins.
The Hawks women took first and second place in the 500 freestyle with Rooney and Danna finishing first and second respectively with times of 5:50.44 and 6:03.23. Markovic easily swam to a first place finish in the 500 yard freestyle on the men's side with a 5:08.53 finish.
Idrissi finished second in the 100 yard butterfly (1:09.55) while Belolipetskii took the top spot on the men's side with a 53.24 finish. Goode finished 4th with a time of 1:10.83.
The Hawks finished up the meet with the 200 freestyle relay. The women's team (Danna, Rooney, Idrissi, and Romic) finished second with a time of 1:50.10 just off the wall from the Marlins top team.
The men's 200 yard freestyle team cruised to a first place finish behind the speed of Markovic, Reedy, Belolipetskii, and Liz Cabrera. The foursome touched the wall a full three seconds ahead of the second place finish with a time of 1:30.31.
UP NEXT
The Hawks will travel to Pembroke, North Carolina in their next outing on October 25th for a 1:00pm double dual against UNC-Pembroke and Barton College.
