NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Winning all 14 women’s events and 12 of the 14 men’s races, the Iona College men’s and women’s swimming & diving team cruised to a pair of wins over the visiting Fairfield University Stags.
The Iona men posted a 203-75 win as the women ended the day with a 199-95 victory. The win gave the men a final regular dual meet season record of 7-7, as the women ended up at 8-8.
“We competed very well today and were aggressive from the opening 200-Medley Relay race with first-and-second placings and never looked back,” commented head coach Nick Cavataro.
“This was a great way for all 9 of seniors, to end the regular season at the Hynes pool, with some great racing and a packed house!”
Before the meet, Cavataro, Assistant Coach Anthony Bruno and Senior Associate AD/Advancement & External Affairs, Matt Glovaski presented the seniors with flowers and silver plates with their competitive years engraved. In addition, Iona swim alum, Jay Wegimont ’13, now a special assistant to Congressman, Eliot Engels, whose 16th district includes Iona, presented each member with a ceremonial letter congratulating them for their achievements and, commitment to Iona, the team and community.
The seniors included Alexa Caravella, Melissa Dorsch, Tommy Keefe, MaryEllen Mangione, Scott Martin, Daniel McGovern, Leigh Musselman, Alicia Raffle as well as junior class member Natalie Bowman, who will graduate early this May.
Fairfield did jump out to an early uncontested lead, taking the initial four springboard diving events with Jane Rice and Daniel Pires winning the women’s and men’s respective one and three-meter events.
The Gaels answer back with back-to-back one finishes in the next 11-races to put the meet out of reach for the Stags.
The 200-yard Medley relay saw Musselman, Mangione, Alexandra DiBiase and Jessica Schmidt combine for a win with the team of Laura Mongillo, Kathryn Nevin, Maria Lopez and Dorsch taking second. The men’s squad of Dave Ciavarelli, Christopher Vadala, Keegan Boisson-Yates and Keefe took the men’s race with Matthew Bosse, Sam Braziel, Liam Oberlander and Zack Holbrook second
The 100-Free saw Kaitlyn Mahon and Maria DiBella go 1-2 with respective times of 10:54.76 and 10:56.02. The men’s race saw Collin Purrman and Christian Foti place 1-2 at 10:07.77 and 10:11.93, respectively.
The 200-Free saw Iona go 1-2-3 in both the women’s and men’s races. The women’s race had Schmidt, Bowman and Alexandra Aliapoulios post respective times of 1:59.01, 2:00.58 and 2:03.38; Jimmy Barnola, Jude Zamora and Foti recorded efforts of 1:47.44, 1:47.72 and 1:48.56.
The 100-yard backstroke saw another sweep of the top 3 placings. The women’s race had Musselman win at 1:00.53, followed by DiBella and Mongillo at 1:03.11 and 1:04.08, respectively. Boisson-Yates took the men’s race at 54.23, followed by Bosse at 54.26 and Ciavarelli at 54.30.
Mangione and Nevin took first and second in the women’s 100-Breaststroke at 1:09.56 and 1:12.98. Vadala, Braziel and Bryan Veals claimed the top three spots in the men’s edition at 1:01.53, 1:03.58 and 1:04.97.
DiBiase won the 200-yard Butterfly at 2:11.75 with teammates Elizabeth Kaczmarek and Demetra Laurent in the third and fourth spots.
The Stag’s Connor Daly (1:55.08) claimed the first of what would be the Stags’ only two swimming wins on the day, outdistancing Dylan Mechanic, Martin and McGovern in the 200-Butterfly.
Bowman and Dorsch went 1-2 in the 50-Free at 25.22 and 15.86 as the Iona trio of Holbrook, Matthew Rothman and Keefe went 1-2-3 in the men’s race with respective times of 22.05, 22.14 and 22.60.
Schmidt and Bowman claimed the top two spots in the 100-Freestyle at 54.20 and 54.68, respectively. Rothman won his second event of the taking the men’s 100-Free at 48.05, just ahead of teammates Holbrook at 48.69 and Zamora, who were second and third.
DiBella and Musselman took first and second in the women’s 200-Backstroke at 2:12.54 and 2:14.21 as Bosse and Boisson-Yates did the same in the men’s race with respective times of 158.88 and 1:58.90.
Mangione and Vadala claimed the women’s and men’s 200-Breaststroke races at 2:26.64 and 2:12.06. Braziel picked up the second pot in the men’s race at 2:21.54.
Mahon and Kaczmarek continued the 1-2 efforts in the Women’s 500-Free at 5:21.42 and 5:22.60. Connor Daly used a strong last 100 to catch Purrman in the 500, winning at 4:46.49 to 4:46.76.
The 100-Butterfly saw a pair of one-two efforts. On the women’s side DiBiase and Lopez went 1:01.31 and 1:02.24. The men’s race saw Zamora and Ciavarelli go 54.39 and 54.87, respectively.
Mangione and Purrman took the meet’s final individual events with times of 2:12.09 and 2:02.09.
The women’s 400-Free Relay saw Schmidt, Bowman, Aliapoulios and Nevin win at 3:41.98. The men’s quartet of Boisson-Yates, Holbrook, Rothman and Foti win at 3:14.53.
“Our women and men were very motivate today, led by the seniors to swim hard. Our group knew that this was the last meet and wanted to go with a win, but with MAAC Championships less than two weeks ago, there was a lot of positioning go on today for championship competition spots and our group responded well,” noted Cavataro
The 2016 MAAC Championships are slated for Erie Community College Pool, beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 10.