By TIM DEROCHER

STAFF WRITER

The Fordham swimming and diving teams competed in a trio of dual meets over the last two weeks. Both the men and the women defeated Marist and Fairfield but fell to Boston University. This moves the men’s dual meet record to 2-3 and the women’s to 3-2.

The men beat Marist by a team score of 140-97. The Rams started out with a win in the 400 medley relay. The team of senior Thomas Yi, juniors Ben Dwyer and Shintaro Noguchi and sophomore Pat Militti won the event with a time of 3:31.23. The men then went on to win eight of the individual events. These event wins were highlighted by freshman Steve Sholdra, taking first in three events. He started out by winning the 1000-m freestyle in 9:49.79. Sholdra turned around later, winning the 200-m freestyle in 1:42.00. The freshman then took a bit of a break and finished his third win in the 500-m freestyle, finishing in 4:33.50. Sophomore Zachary Jacobsen added two event wins of his own in the 200-m individual medley along with the 200-m breaststroke. Senior Devon Morris, Militti and  Yi each added one win to the total as well.

The women beat the Red Foxes 145-96 and also started the meet with a win in the 400-m medley Relay. The team of seniors Brienne Ryan and Alana Biagiolli, sophomore Kelly Carroll and freshman Shannon Lulley finished in a time of 3:53.40. The women, led by Ryan, won seven individual events. Ryan won the 200-m freestyle in 1:53.57 along with the 100-m freestyle in 51.70. Lulley also won the 200-m individual medley. Sophomore Frances Warren and freshmen Theresa Goehring and Anna Marshall all added individual wins of their own in the pool while senior Brittany Salas tacked on a win for the divers too.

The Rams made a quick turnaround the next day, sweeping Fairfield. The men won 177-121 and the women 166-123. The Rams dominated the meet as they pulled down the fastest times in a combined 24 of 32 events.  Multi-event winners for the men included Militti, Noguchi and Jacobsen while Marshall, Ryan, Salas and freshman Megan Gray all had multiple top times for the women.

The Rams’ third meet was against the Boston University Terriers. The women fell 178-120 while the men lost by a count of 194.5-102.5. The women, in what is starting to seem like typical dual meet fashion, swept both of the relays, winning the 200-m medley in 1:46.84 and the 400-m freestyle in 3:32.90. The medley team consisted of Ryan, Marshall, Biagioli and Lulley, while the freestyle team was composed of Biagioli and Ryan again along with Carroll and senior Kellie Lyver. Ryan went on to win two more events of her own taking the 100-m backstroke in 55.04 and the 200-m backstroke in 2:02.00. Lyver went on to iniviually win the 50 Freestyle in a time of 25.01. Rookies Anna Marshall and Lulley also won an event each, taking the 200-m breaststroke and the 100-m butterfly, respectively.

Another rookie who had a fantastic meet was Sholdra, who won three individual events against the Terriers. He won the 1,000-m freestyle in 9:26.69, the 200-m butterfly in 1:52.94 and the 500-m freestyle in 4:38.91. Coming up with two wins of his own, Noguchi won the 200-m freestyle and the 100-m butterfly.

Marshall won the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week award for the last week of October, and Sholdra won the same award for the first week of November. This was Marshall’s first Rookie of the Week award and Sholdra’s second. Sholdra was honored for his aforementioned three wins against BU, one of which (the 200-m butterfly) was an A-10 top time for the whole conference. Marshall’s accolade came in light of her winning performances in the 100-m and 200-m breaststroke along with being a member of the top 200-m medley relay team.

The A-10 awards did not stop there for the Rams, however, as Ryan captured the A-10 Performer of the Week award for both of the last two weeks. This now makes three straight weeks that Ryan has been awarded the title of top performer in the A-10 conference. Over just three meets, Ryan managed to win six individual events, to be part of five winning relays and to set multiple top conference times.

It will be interesting to see if Fordham can carry the momentum from these dual meets into its first invitational of the season. On Nov. 9 and 10, the Rams will travel to Princeton, NJ to compete in the Princeton Invitational against solid competition.