NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Sparked by five combined individual wins and three relay victories including two on the men’s side and a nail-biting 400-yard freestyle relay win in the final women’s event, the Iona College men’s swimming and diving team came away with a win and the women were 2-1 in the team’s annual quad meet with Sacred Heart, St. Francis Brooklyn and Wagner at the Hynes Center pool.
The women came away with respective 171-43 and 139-75 wins over the Terriers and Pioneers. The men defeated St. Francis 135-83. Wagner – behind the strength of an opening 400-yard medley relay win, a pair of 1-2 placings in one and three meter diving and four other wins, topped the Iona women 135-83.
The men’s win pushes the squad to their best start in a decade at 3-0, with a challenging MAAC dual meet against MAAC rival Bryant on Halloween on the road. The women will also face Bryant and stand at 3-2.
Iona’s individual wins came from Christian Foti (100- and 200-freestyle), Mary Ellen Mangione (200-breaststroke), Collin Purrman (200-backstroke) and Christopher Vadala (200-breaststroke).
The quartet of Keegan Boisson-Yates, Vadala, Dave Ciavarelli and Zack Holbrook took the opening men’s 400-medley relay with a season-best time of 3:38.21. The team of Boisson-Yates, Holbrook, Jude Zamora and Foti posted another season-best winning at 3:14.92.
The women’s team of Jessica Schmidt, Mangione, Alex DiBase and Natalie Bowman had a season best time of 4:05.43, but fell short of Wagner’s 4:01.79. The quartet of Schmidt, Bowman, Elizabeth Kaczmarek and Katie Nevin held off a closing Wagner squad to win the final event by .15 in the 400-freestyle relay at 3:39.94.
“We had a number of solid efforts today and we know we are going in the right direction on the road to February and the MAAC Championships,” said assistant coach Anthony Bruno. “The more we can improve on today, the better we will be at the end.”