After falling to the University of Maryland last weekend, Towson’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams hosted George Mason Saturday looking to get back on track.

Not only were the teams looking to get back on track, but it was also Senior Day, and the team wanted to make sure they honored their seniors the right way.

The women did just that, handling George Mason to give them a record of 6-1 overall, and remain undefeated in CAA play with a record of 4-0.

The team was led by one of their top seniors, Cari Czarnecki.  Czarnecki won three events: the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:01.64, the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.50, and the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:30.76.

“I’ve said it for the past four years, Cari is a competitor,” Head Coach Pat Mead said. “We could have a meet every day of the week and Cari would come in here with a smile on her face ready to go.”

Sophomore Kaitlin Burke was another standout performer. She won the 200-yard freestyle event with a time of 1:52.63 and the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 4:57.24.

“Kaitlin did a great job,” Mead said. “We told her to tank the 1000-yard freestyle but keep pace with the [George] Mason swimmers in order to have enough left for the other events and she did that.  Cari [Czarnecki] and Kaitlin really did a great job.”

Seniors Maegan McLaughlin, Jenny Nevin, Maggie Macedonia and Marianna Kogut, along with sophomore Melanie Rowland, and juniors Adrienne Phillips and Amanda Skroupa helped lead the team to a well-earned victory.

The men fell short, dropping their record to 2-5 overall and 1-3 in the CAA, but improved from last week.

Freshman John Gartland had an impressive day, coming in first in the 100-yard breaststroke event with a time of 1:01.43 and second in the 200-yard breaststroke event with a time of 2:15.64.

Freshmen Matt Lowe, Matt Collingswood, and Andy Disco also had impressive outings.

Throughout the season, Mead has seen his men’s team improve, but he believes now is the time to make it all count.

“Let’s be honest, we show up to win,” Mead said.  “We don’t come out here thinking, ‘It’s okay to come in second place.’ We came out here today truly believing we could win this meet, we just fell short.  We have some holes here and there, and we’re going to work on filling them in order to compete at CAA’s.”

At the end of the day, many seniors went out happy, and Mead hopes the feeling trickles down throughout the team.

“We hope that the underclassmen see what it’s like,” Mead said. “We hope they’ll continue to work hard.”

The Tigers get back into action next Saturday, as they host Johns Hopkins University.