The Shippensburg University men and women’s swim teams traveled to George Mason University this weekend for the annual Patriot Invitational. The three-day event is always heavily anticipated by the team because of Shippensburg’s past success at George Mason.
This year was no different, as both the men and women squads put up benchmark performances that will set the tone for the remainder of their season. However, the top stories from the weekend were the record-breaking performances by sophomore, Stephanie O’Toole.
On Thursday, O’Toole got things started for the Raiders when she broke the school record in the 200-yard individual medley. The record — previously held by Rikki Sargent in 2013 — was overtaken by O’Toole in the morning preliminary races. O’Toole returned later that evening for the daily finals and posted a faster time of 2:01.61, breaking her own record from the morning.
Friday saw similar outcomes, as O’Toole broke two more school records in the 400-yard individual medley (IM) and the 100-yard butterfly. Coming into the weekend, O’Toole already owned the school record for the 400-yard IM, but was able to push the mark even further with a new time of 4:24.25. The new record beats her previous best by a little over six seconds.
By the time Saturday rolled around all eyes were on O’Toole. She did not disappoint, breaking three more records throughout the day. The first two came in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard freestyle. The third was during the 400-yard freestyle relay, which a team event. O’Toole swam the second leg of the relay with a time of 51.21 seconds, helping the team finish with a total time of 3:32.95.
If you’re counting, that is six school records broken in one weekend. Below is a list of O’Toole’s historic weekend.
Stephanie O'Toole this weekend at George Mason:
School record in 100 freestyle (51.21)
School record in 100 fly (55.74 in time trial)
School record in 200 breaststroke (2:17.83)
School record in 200 IM (2:01.61)
School record in 400 IM (4:24.25)
School record in 400 medley relay (3:52.17)
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