The St. Lawrence Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving teams travel to the Rochester Institute of Technology Friday to compete at the inaugural Don Richards Invitational Swim Meet. After six weeks of dual meet competition, the invitational will provide the Saints their first opportunity to compete in a championship setting as they end their first semester of competition. The meet will take place over three sessions, starting Friday afternoon and concluding Saturday evening.

The Women’s Swimming and Diving team heads to the meet with an impressive 3-1 record, their strongest start in the last five seasons. Leading the Saints will be distance swimmer Taylor McClung ‘19, who is undefeated in the 1,000-yard freestyle this season. McClung finished seventh in the 1,650-yard freestyle at the 2016 Liberty League Championship, the predecessor to the Don Richards Invitational last season and is looking to finish higher this year.

Other swimmers to note for the Saints are sophomore middle-distance freestyler Madeline Holodnik ’20, sprint freestyler Christina Felchner ‘20, and diver Emma Henshaw ‘21. Several of the Saints’ freshmen are coming off of strong performances so far in their first season, including multiple event winning breastroker Demi McClung and butterflyer Rachel Meurer, who picked up her first individual win against Bard College on November 11.

The Men’s team took their first win of the season against Bard College and is looking to carry that momentum into the Invitational. Diver and four time All-American, Matt Edkins ’19, has been undefeated on both the one-meter and three-meter boards so far this season. Edkins was the second-highest finishing athlete from the Liberty League at last season’s NCAA championship and has continued his impressive diving streak through the first half of the 2017-18 season, already posting NCAA Zone-qualifying scores. He will try to maintain his perfect season record in the Invitational.

Also highlighting the Men’s Team is sprint freestyler Cal Arnold ‘19, who has posted several best times already this season; middle distance freestyler and butterflyer Isaac Brinkman ‘20, who has won at least one event at each meet so far; and individual medley swimmer Chris Donahue ‘21, who will compete in his first collegiate invitational this weekend.

Other teams competing at the Don Richards Invitational will be Liberty League opponents Rochester Institute of Technology, Skidmore College, Clarkson University, Bard College, and non-league opponent Roberts Wesleyen College. After the meet, the Saints will have a break throughout the winter holiday before resuming their season with a weeklong training trip in Coral Springs, Florida in January to kick off their second semester of competition.