After an over two-month break, Fordham Swimming and Diving is back in action. The team competed last Saturday in a home tri-meet against La Salle University and the University of Richmond. The Fordham women’s team defeated both universities, with scores of 188-11 and 176-121, respectively. The men were able to beat La Salle with a score of 161-129.

Although it was a good day competitively for the team, there was also a bittersweet nature associated with the meet. Fordham held Senior Day for the team, simultaneously celebrating and saying goodbye to departing team members. Including both the men’s and women’s team, a dozen members of the team were recognized on Senior Day.

Both the Fordham men and women started their meets off strong with wins in the 200 medley relay. Freshman Christian Taylor, sophomore Vitalis Onu and graduate students Paris Raptis and Taras Zherebetskyy combined for a time of 1:32.21 for the men. Meanwhile, sophomores Leire Martin, Emma Shaughnessy, Jessica Zebrowski and Zoei Howard secured first with a time of 1:44.90. These impressive relay performances set the tone early for both the men and women.

Raptis continued his dominant season with the men’s team. In addition to the 200 medley relay, Raptis also contributed to the team’s first-place win in the 400 freestyle relay. Individually, his performances were just as strong. Raptis took home first in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:49.27 and 100 butterfly with a time of 49.94. Overall, this was a great showing for Raptis who was included in the Senior Day recognitions.

For the women’s team, several Rams were multi-event winners. Members of the 200 medley relay team, Zebrowski and L. Martin, took the top spot in two other individual events. Zebrowski swept the butterfly events for the women while L. Martin won both backstroke events. Sophomore Ainhoa Martin had the strongest individual performance for the day, winning a remarkable three different individual events. She swept both breaststroke events before tacking on an extra win in the 200-individual medley.

With this tri-meet in the record books, the Rams are now past the halfway mark for the 2022-23 swim and dive season. There is no time to rest yet, though, as Fordham will compete against four different schools in the next week before finishing the season with the Atlantic 10 tournament. The team’s next meet is on Wednesday, Jan. 25 in the Bronx against Iona College. The Rams will hope to continue this strong start to the second half of the season strongly as they did against La Salle and Richmond.