By Dominic Capone

The Fordham Swimming and Diving team opened the second half of its season at La Salle University with a split decision. The women opened with a commanding 195-105 over the winless Explorers, improving its record to 5-0. The men, on the other hand, dropped to 2-3 with a 210.5-86.5 loss to La Salle.

Senior Tara Brunner propelled the women to victory, winning a team high three solo events. She posted two victories in the 50 and 100 freestyle, winning in 23.94 and 57.01, respectively. Brunner, along with graduate student Milly Furneaux and juniors Theresa Mullen and Naima Mackrel, took first place in the 200 medley with a time of 1:46.88.

Mackrel, a junior transfer from Sarah Lawrence College, took first in the 100 backstroke in 59.64 seconds. Mullen was also a part of the 400 freestyle win, along with freshman Kysha Marie Altura, junior Paulina Watson and sophomore Caitlyn McNary, with a time of 3:36.60. McNary won two solo events as well, in the 200 (1:55.88) and 500 (5:07.71) freestyle.

Hannah McGee, a sophomore from Lafayette Hill, Pa., took home a victory in the 200 butterfly in 2:06.57.

“It’s definitely something to get used to but we had a lot of great training over the break to keep us prepared and focused for the next few meets to come,” McGee said on the time lapse from the teams’ last meet. “I thought we all did a great job in making the best of it and having a lot of fun. I think that’s one of the key reasons as to why we’ve had a lot of success this season.”

As for the men, they only had one first place finish with four second place and seven third place finishes at the event. Junior Christopher Sleutjes had the one and only first place finish by taking the 1000 freestyle in a season best time 9:53.25. Sleutjes took fourth in the 500 freestyle in 4:59.17. Junior Joseph Vizza placed second in the 100 freestyle in 48.16 seconds, while also helping the relay team of freshman Spencer Clarke, sophomore Bryce Bollesen and senior Travis Monahan to a bronze finish in the 400 freestyle with a time of 3:15.94.

“The team went into the meet with a good attitude and although we did not win, we’re looking forward to racing LaSalle again at the conference meet,” Vizza stated. When asked what the team needs to improve upon, Vizza said, “At this point in the season, the team is focusing on perfecting our technique for our upcoming conference meet.”

Speaking of the next conference meet, Fordham welcomes in the University of Massachusetts to face the Minutemen and Minute Women at Col. Francis B. Messmore Aquatic Center on Saturday, Feb. 2nd at 1 p.m.