By NICK CILIBERTO
Contributing Writer
Fordham Swimming and Diving finished a busy weekend on a high note, with both the men’s and women’s teams defeating LaSalle Saturday afternoon at the Fordham’s Messmore Aquatic Center. The men’s team topped LaSalle 156.5-141.5, while the women’s team defeated the Explorers 182-113. The Richmond women were also present at the tri-meet. The Spiders defeated the Fordham women 161-124.
The men’s team captured nine events on the day, led by freshman Steve Sholdra and junior Shintaro Noguchi, who won three events each.
On the women’s side, the Rams finished first in three events. Senior Brienne Ryan captured the only two backstroke events for the Rams, topping her season best time in both events with a time of 55.01 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke and a time of 2:00.55 in the 200-yard event. Ryan was also part of the 400-yard freestyle relay along with freshman Chandler Lulley, and seniors Kellie Lyver and Alana Biagioli, who also claimed a season best time of 3:30.30.
The women fell to Richmond in the 200-medley relay and the 200-yard freestyle. Although the relay team consisting of Ryan, Biagioli, sophomore Kelly Carroll (and freshman Shannon Lulley clocked a season best time of 1:45.19), they fell four hundredths of a second short of the Richmond squad. The team also lost the freestyle by a margin of just over a half second.
All of this success came after both the men’s and women’s team beat the Iona Gaels on Friday afternoon in a home meet. The squad won 22 out of 26 events in the meet. The women’s team topped Iona by a score of 140- 93, and the men’s won by a margin of 134-76.
The Rams finished on top in each of the first 10 events, opening with Carroll, Ryan, sophomore Jordan Tomimatsu and junior Shannon Jones, winning the 200 medley relay in 1:50.15. Meanwhile, the men’s medley relay team of senior Thomas Yi, junior Ben Dwyer, sophomore Pat Militti and Noguchi also won the medley relay in 1:36.82.
The Rams followed their early success by taking both 1000-yard freestyle events with freshman Megan Gehrich and sophomore Kevin Kosciuk, the 200-yard freestyle with junior Kara Field and Militti, the 50-yard freestyle with Alana Biagioli and Noguchi and the 200-yard individual medley with junior Spencer Chappell and Sholdra.
Militti and senior diver Kevin Wong both had big afternoons, being the only multiple winners of the meet. Militti won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 51.57 seconds, while Wong took the one-meter dive with a score of 213.01 and the three-meter dive with a score of 224.33.
Thomas Shetler took the 100-yard freestyle in 49.19 seconds, while fellow freshman Joseph Parisi won the 100-yard backstroke in 56.42 seconds. On the women’s side, Ryan won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 58.03 seconds, while Carroll finished first in the 100-yard freestyle in 54.82 seconds.
The meet concluded as both the men’s and women’s teams won their respective 200 freestyle relays. Lyver, sophomore Maureen McKenna and freshmen Megan Gray and Meg Foster finished with a time of 1:41.01. Noguchi and juniors William Thomann, Nicolas Alemann and Nicholas Belfanti won their event with a time of 1:29.94 for the men.
The Rams travel to New Jersey to take on Rider and Rutgers next Saturday at 10:30 a.m., and close out the regular season with two home meets: Feb. 2 against the UMass and Feb. 6 against St. Francis (NY). The Atlantic 10 Championships will be held in Geneva, Ohio, beginning Feb. 20.
