Rider Triumvirate, Niagara's O'Rourke Win Weekly Awards
MAAC Sports
Edison, N.J. ? Drew Modrov of Rider University won MAAC Men’s Swimmer of the Week honors, while sister Priscilla Modrov earned the distinction on the women’s side. Niagara University diver Ian O’Rourke took MAAC Men’s Diver of the Week honors for the second week in a row, and Amanda Burke of Rider was named Women’s Diver of the Week for the seventh time this season.
Sophomore Drew Modrov, a native of Smithtown, New York, won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.95 seconds and the 100-yard freestyle in 46.08 seconds. He was also a part of the 400-yard freestyle relay team that placed second with a time of 3:15.75. His double-win came against a Navy squad that entered the meet ranked number one among Mid-Major Division I teams, according to collegeswimming.com.
Priscilla Modrov, a senior, was a triple-winner in a meet at the University of Pennsylvania, in which Navy also competed. She won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.04 seconds and the 200-yard individual medley in 2:06.18. Modrov also won the 200-yard butterfly in 2:03.18, missing out on a Penn pool record by .54 seconds.
O’Rourke continues to have an impressive season for the Purple Eagles. He won the three-meter diving event at Buffalo by nearly 100 points with a tally of 331.65, while winning the one-meter dive by 30 points, coming in at 296.55. Against St. Francis College, O’Rourke was tops on both the one-meter dive (289.13) and the three-meter dive (296.85). O’Rourke is undefeated in dual meet diving in 2009.
Burke, a junior out of Churchville, Pa., dove against competitors from Penn and Navy, winning both the one-meter and three-meter diving events. Her score of 280.35 on the one-meter board bested the second-place finisher by 59 points, while her three-meter tally of 308.75 provided a cushion of 74 points between her and the rest of the field.
The 2009 MAAC Swimming and Diving Championships will be held February 12-14 at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md.