Fordham Swimming and Diving started their season in the best possible way earlier this month, with both the men’s and women’s teams winning each of their first three meets against Manhattan College, Marist College and Monmouth University.
Against Manhattan on Oct. 13, Fordham won every single event both in individual competition and in relays. The women walked away with a 163-65 win over the Jaspers, while the men won by a score of 163-58.
There were three multi-event winners on the women’s side of the competition, all of them juniors. Leire Martin won both the 100 backstroke with a time of 56.87 and the 200 individual medley at 2:06.27. Emma Shaughnessy took home first place in both breaststroke events, winning the 50 at 29.06 and the 100 at 1:04.39.
Lastly, Jessica Zebrowski swept both butterfly events, coming at 25.47 in the 50 and 56.59 in the 100.
On the men’s side, graduate student Wojciech Dutkowiak and sophomore Marco Petit won two events each. Dutkowiak, a transfer from the University of Pittsburgh, captured first in both the 100 and 200 freestyle events at 46.57 and 1:41.86, respectively. Petit dominated the diving events, winning the one-meter dive with a score of 224.55 and the three-meter dive with a score of 224.25.
The Rams were less dominant in their meet against Marist College the following Thursday, although Fordham still won both the men’s and women’s competitions.
The men’s competition came down to the wire, with Fordham narrowly winning 150.5-140.5. There was a bit more space between Fordham and Marist on the women’s side, with the Rams coming out on top 188-104.
Thanks to multi-event wins from graduate student Guy Gropper, senior Noah Althoff and sophomore Christian Taylor, the Fordham men held a slim one-point lead over Marist heading into the final event of the day: the 400 freestyle relay. The quartet of Taylor, Dutkowiak, Althoff and Gropper secured the victory over Marist by winning the relay at 3:03.75.
On the women’s side, Fordham’s victory was much less stressful. They won all 16 events they took part in against the Foxes. Sophomore Mya Bokerman captured first place in both the one-meter and three-meter dive with scores of 292.82 and 285.08, respectively. Graduate student Allison Lin took home first place in the 200 freestyle at 1:53.14 and the 200 individual medley at 2:07.36, while Zebrowski won the 200 butterfly at 2:07.36 and the 100 freestyle at 52.50.
Also winning multiple events was graduate student Manon Compagner, who finished first in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.71 and the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.82.
It was then a quick two-day turnaround for Fordham’s first road meet of the season against Monmouth University in New Jersey. Both the men and women won handily against Monmouth, with each squad improving to 3-0 on the season. Top performers for the Fordham men’s team included Taylor and senior Alex Wilhelm.
Taylor won both the 100 backstroke at 50.36 and the 200 backstroke at 1:52.93, in addition to being a part of Fordham’s victorious 200 medley relay team.
Wilhelm finished first in the 200 individual medley and tied with junior Alex Shah for top spot in the 100 freestyle. For the women’s team, Shaughnessy once again swept both breaststroke events, winning the 100 at 1:04.62 and the 200 at 2:22.21. Another top performer was Zebrowski, who placed first in both the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly.
Fordham will be back in action on Saturday, Nov. 4 with a meet against the Georgetown University Hoyas in Washington, D.C.
