By Dominic Capone
The Fordham men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were back in action last week as they squared off against a tough opponent at Boston University, as well as a non-scoring meet against Brown University. The men were looking for their first win of the season while the women were seeking a victory to push them over .500.
The match took place in Boston as the Fordham men fell 163-122 and the women won 161-137. Despite the loss, sophomore Joseph Vizza believes the men’s team is on the right track. “I think we have been improving our performance at each meet we’ve been to so far. We have raced extremely talented teams and have not lost any of our drive.”
The men had a strong showing from freshman swimmer Auston Ramsay as he earned his first career victory by taking first place in the 100-backstroke in 51.18 seconds. When asked about Auston’s victory and how he could build off of it, Coach Steve Potsklan simply stated, “We encourage Auston along with our other freshman to race without limits. This builds confidence leading to A10s.”
Ramsay, alongside Joseph Vizza, Travis Monahan and Joe Mercurio finished second in the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:32.69. The men, behind Vizza, Monahan, Mercurio and freshman Bryce Bollesen also competed in the 400-freestyle relay finishing second in 3:06.11. Joseph Vizza also added a second-place finish in the 200-freestyle with a time of 1:41.95.
As for the women, they left Boston on the opposite side of the spectrum, improving to 2-1 on the young season winning 161-137. The women had three first place finishes, with sophomore Amelia Bullock winning two races. She took home the 100-butterfly in 56.07 seconds and the 200-butterfly in 2:02.89.
The other victory came at the hands of veteran Nele Albers as she won the 200-breaststroke in 2:22.66. This was no problem for her as she holds the school record in the 200-breaststroke with a time of 2:18.08.
Freshman Michelle Martin came in second for the women’s team in the 100-backstroke in which she clocked in at 58.16 seconds. Sophomore Catherine Alabanza also came in second in the 200-backstroke with a time of 2:05.04.
The men seem to be happy with the way they are competing; it just isn’t showing up in the win column. “The only thing we can do is keep attacking practices and make sure we don’t lose our forward momentum,” said Joseph Vizza, when asked what his team can work on for next week.
The women look to keep the winning going as the Fordham men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will be competing on Nov. 10 at Fairfield, beginning at 5:00 p.m.
