Last week marked a historic moment for Fordham University’s Swimming and Diving, with both the men’s and women’s teams securing victories over Wagner University in a dual sweep to end two dominant seasons.
The 159-75 win extends the women’s undefeated streak and puts them at 9-0 for the regular season, their third straight undefeated regular season. They are the first Fordham team in the school’s history to have three consecutive undefeated seasons in any sport. For the men’s team, the 133-98 win rounds out their season at 8-1, the same record they ended the season with last year.
The meet started and ended, as they always do, with the two relay events. First was the 200 medley relay. The women’s team, composed of junior Leire Martin, junior Emma Shaughnessy, junior Jessica Zebrowski and graduate student Allison Lin, finished in first place, winning by just under a second. Meanwhile, the men’s team, represented by sophomore Christian Taylor, freshman David Topi, junior Vitalis Onu and senior Noah Althoff, just missed out on the first position, losing by two one-hundredths of a second.
Fordham did, however, take home both top finishes in each of the 200 freestyle relays that finished out the day. The team of graduate student Jane Brown, junior Zoei Howard, Lin and Zebrowski had the best time for the women. The men’s team of graduate student Guy Gropper, Onu, Althoff and senior Alex Wilhelm also finished first with the top time.
In the individual events, the women dominated, with Fordham only coming in second in one event, the 50 freestyle, making it a total of 12 wins out of the 13 events, including both relays.
Junior Ainhoa Martin and sophomore Mya Bokerman led the way by winning two events each. Ainhoa claimed first in the 200 freestyle and 100 butterfly. Bokerman won both of the diving events, the one-meter and the three-meter.
Other wins came from sophomore Ellen Brooks in the 1000 freestyle, Leire in the 200 individual medley, Zebrowski in the 100 freestyle, Brown in the 100 backstroke, junior Emilie Korg in the 500 freestyle and Shaughnessy in the 100 breaststroke.
The men’s team won a total of eight events on the day, including the relay win. They were led by Taylor and sophomore Marco Petit, who each won two events. Taylor took first in the 50 freestyle and the 100 backstroke, while Petit won the 1-meter and 3-meter dives to sweep that category.
Other contributors on the men’s side included Wilhelm in the 200 freestyle, Althoff in the 200 individual medley and Alexander Shah in the 100 freestyle.
Next up for the Rams is the 2024 Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships, which will take place from Feb. 21-24 at the Hampton Aquaplex in Hampton, Va.
