NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The Iona College men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams entered the two-day Loyola H2ounds Invitational on a roll, coming into the meet off back-to-back wins against Manhattan and Monmouth and with high expectations.
At the end of 40 events in Baltimore, the Gaels came away with a pair of wins against MAAC rival, Saint Peter’s and losses to the Patriot League’s Loyola Maryland and MAAC leader Marist.
Iona defeated Saint Peter’s women and men by respective scores of 234-79 and 263-35. In the Loyola meet, the hosts won the women’s meet 249-101 and the men’s meet 281-83. The Marist meet saw the Red Fox women triumph 261-99 and the men post a 249-108 victory. The women’s team mark now stands at 6-5, while the men are 6-3.
“The format is a bit unusual,” noted head coach Nick Cavataro. “In each event your swim, the hope is to enter your best swimmers; however, the scoring is dual meet style, so depth and quality are vital. This is also the last meet of the semester and for almost everyone racing, one of the final opportunities to post quality championship entry times. The resulting times become the most important thing.”
The women battled in every race, with sophomore Elizabeth Kaczmarek and seniors Leigh Musselman and MaryEllen Mangione leading the way.
Kaczmarek and Mangione pushed each other to a stunning 1-2 finish in the 200-yard individual medley, with respective times of 2:07.92 and 2:08.32.
Musselman, lowered her school record in the 100-back from 58.86 to 58.73 with her seventh place race.
Other top six individual highlights included included: junior Natalie Bowman’s fifth place in the 100-freestyle at 53.90, freshman Maria DiBella in fourth in the 500-freestyle at 5:09.54, and sophomore Alexandra DiBiase sixth place finishes in the 100- and 200-butterfly events with respective times of 59.73 and 2:09.79. Senior co-captain Melissa Dorsch was fifth in the 50-freestyle at 24.67. Kaczmarek was fifth in the 400-IM at 4:34.98. While sophomore Kaitlyn Mahon was sixth in the 1650-freestyle at 18:13.12.Mangione was also second in the 200-breaststroke (2:22.55) and third in the 400-IM (4:32.88). Musselman came in fifth in the 200-backstroke (2:08.88). Junior Katie Nevin finished sixth in the 100-Breast (1:09.49) and freshman Jessica Schmidt was third in the 100-freestyle (53.69) and fourth in the 50-freestyle (24.56).
Men in the top six included junior Keegan Boisson-Yates in a fourth place finish in the 100-butterfly (51.88) and fifth in both the 100- and 200-backstroke at 53.85 and 1:55.86, respectively. Freshman Matthew Bosse claimed sixth in the 200-backstroke (1:56.04). Sophomore David Ciavarelli was sixth in the 100-backstroke (53.94). Sophomore Christian Foti was second in the 500-freestyle (4:39.57), third in the 200-freestyle (1:43.10) and fourth in the 1650-freestyle (16:19.33). Sophomore Zack Holbrook was fifth in the 100-freestyle at 47.56 and sixth in the 50-freestyle at 21.90. Junior Collin Purrman was second in the 400-IM (4:14.54), fourth in the 500-freestyle (4:41.53) and sixth in the 1650-freestyle (16:31.73). Junior Dylan Mechanic was sixth in the 200-butterfly (1:56.57). Junior Matthew Rothman was fourth in the 50- and 100-freestyle with respective times of 21.66 and 47.48. Sophomore Chris Vadala was third in the 200-breaststroke (2:09.67) and fourth in the 100-breaststroke (59.77). Freshman Jude Zamora was sixth in the 100-butterfly at 52.03 and 100-freestylestyle at 47.66.
“We wanted to be closer to Loyola and Marist in the point race. The results on a quantitative basis put us in strong position for our February run at the MAAC Championships in Buffalo”, commented Cavataro. “Almost every time was a season-best and places our swimmers in the top 16 in many cases which is where you need to be to score in the MAAC.”
“Our relays are really coming together well and where they will be competitive for medals in the MAAC Championship, we are seeing enormous inter-team competition developing for those coveted spots and that is both healthy and productive.”