NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The Iona College men’s and women’s swimming & diving programs concluded their seasons tonight on the final day of the four-day long Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship. The men’s program placed fifth with 400.5 points, and women’s program surged to a fourth place finish with 469 points.
The day kicked off with the 1650-Freestyle where sophomore Maria DiBella, junior Kaitlyn Mahon and freshman Anna Desiderio finished fifth, sixth and eighth respectively; they touched the wall at 17:35.00, 17:43.49 and 18:04.30.
Junior Christian Foti finished third in the 1650-Free to lead the men’s side. He finished in 15:58.37 while freshman Matthew Anderson took eighth at 16:06.73.
In the 200-Backstroke, sophomore Jessica Schmidt finished sixth in 2:07.56
Junior Zack Holbrook represented the Maroon & Gold in the men’s 100-Freestyle final, finishing fifth in 46.22.
Junior Elizabeth Kaczmarek added onto her two gold medals from day two of the MAAC Championships with a sixth place finish in the 200-Breast at 1:09.83. On the men’s side, junior Sam Braziel rose up to earn bronze at 59.37 in the event.
In the final individual event of the four-day championship, junior Alex DiBiase finished fifth in the 200-Butterfly at 1:01.73.
The quartet of Schmidt, freshman Alyssa Chain, junior Alex Aliapoulios and senior Kathryn Nevin finished fifth in the women’s 400-Freestyle Relay. The men’s foresome of Holbrook, Foti, junior Kyle Desrosiers and sophomore Jude Zamora placed fourth in their race, clocking in at 3:09.49.
Rider University captured the men’s MAAC title with 840.5 team points. Marist claimed runner-up with 635 points while Bryant captured 469.5 points for a bronze finish. Canisius College edged out Iona for fourth with 420 points. Following Iona’s middle-of-the-pack placement of fifth were Niagara (324), Saint Peter’s (246), Manhattan (180.5), Fairfield (172.5) and Monmouth (97.5).
Marist won the women’s MAAC Championship with 810 points, beating out Rider and Canisius who placed second and third with 616 and 581 points respectively. Iona’s fourth place finish eked out Niagara (328), Fairfield (319) and Siena (289). Manhattan (194), Monmouth (122) and Saint Peter’s (58) rounded out the bottom three.