On Saturday, Feb. 1 the Fairfield University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams welcomed the Manhattan College Jaspers to the RecPlex pool. Both the men’s and women’s teams swept all 16 events, with winning scores of 233-56 and 239-44 respectively. The Stags celebrated senior day at their last home meet of the season. Graduating seniors on the women’s roster include Lauren Belecanech, Courtney Dye, Katelyn Hahn, Emily Holman, Juliana Lally, Tara Lenahan, Shannon McDade and Colleen Young. Honorees on the men’s side were Nick Adams, Brendan Finnegan, Nick Giardiello, Austin Kenyon, Harrison McGovern, Ian Nelson, Jordan Rahurahu, Michael Sparks and Phillip Zyskowski.
Fairfield’s divers did their part in contributing to a clean sweep. Diving for the women was Caitlin Campbell ‘22, who won the 3 Meter Diving with a score of 190.57, and finished in second place in the 1 Meter Diving scoring 195.67. Her teammate, Erin Win ‘22, notched first place in the 1 Meter Diving, edging out Campbell with a score of 201.59. First-year Samuel Tonole represented the men’s team and took home first place in the 1 Meter Diving with a final score of 224.24 and second place in the 3 Meter Diving (222.23).
Fairfield appeared strong in the pool, and kicked off the swimming portion of the meet with groups in the 200 SC Meter Medley Relay. First place finishers for the women were Morgan Rogers ‘23 (31.90), Victoria Krivitsky ‘21 (35.71), McDade (31.35) and Holman (27.62), who stopped the clock at 2:06.58. Just behind them were Belecanech (35.22), Lenahan (35.34), Juliana Lally (31.20) and Dye (29.68) who finished in 2:11.44. The men’s team mirrored their female counterparts’ success and also claimed first and second place finishes in the 200 SC Meter Medley Relay. The winning quartet who finished in 1:45.06 was made up of Will Robinson ’23 (27.12), Peter Sloan ’22 (29.05), Rahurahu (25.48) and Nelson (23.41). Second place finishers were Evan Fair ’22 (27.34), Guillem Perez ’23 (30.63), Arion Mete ’21 (26.57) and Adams (24.55).
Next on the schedule was the Women 800 SC Meter Freestyle, where rookie Julia Courtney won in 9:38.11, just ahead of Shannon Feeley ’22 who clocked in at 9:42.86. Again, in the same event the men produced a parallel picture of success when Patrick Boyle ’22 (8:41.74) and Chris Ford ’23 (8:55.62) claimed first and second place.
Manhattan’s Mackenzie Tuttle was edged out of second place in the Women 200 SC Meter Freestyle by 1.92 seconds, letting Fairfield’s Sara Ostensen ’21 (2:12.83) and Maria Nitti ’21 (2:15.00) claim the top two spots. In the Men 200 SC Meter Freestyle, the Stags went one-two-three due to stellar races by graduate student Erik Hren (1:54.69), Peter Gori ’22 (1:57.35) and Finnegan (2:00.62) who finished in that order.
On the women’s side for the 100 SC Meter Backstroke, Morgan Hansen ’21 (1:07.87) won for the women. She was succeeded by Lally (1:10.95) and Holman (1:11.47). Robinson (57.42) placed first for the men and Thomas Willemse ’22 (1:02.30) garnered second place recognition. In the 100 SC Meter Breaststroke Fairfield took ownership of the first three finishing spots. In first was Colleen Young (1:18.09), then there was Krivitsky (1:18.44) and Lenahan (1:19.93) in second and third respectively. Sloan (1:05.27), Perez (1:07.41), McGovern (1:09.21) and Bexhet Dovolani ’21 (1:10.23) dominated in the men’s category of the 100 SC Meter Breaststroke, locking up the top four finishing spots.
Although the 200 SC Meter Butterfly is an individual race, a team effort was made when Madelynn Mowad ’22 (2:27.35) and Haleigh McLaughlin ’21 (2:38.75) of the women’s team finished one after the other to win the event. In the 200 SC Meter Butterfly, Fair (2:07.44), Rahurahu (2:07.55) and Zyskowski (2:16.44) secured first, second and third place for the men.
Other first place mentions for the women go to Mowad in the 100 SC Meter Freestyle (1:01.27) and the 200 SC Meter Individual Medley (2:27.24), Samantha D’Alessandro ’22 in the 50 SC Meter Freestyle (28.11), Lenehan in the 200 SC Meter Breaststroke (2:53.93), Ostensen in the 400 SC Meter Freestyle (4:44.65) and Hansen in the 100 SC Meter Butterfly (1:05.47). The women remained victorious after an excellent showing in the 400 SC Meter Freestyle Relay, comprised of D’Alessandro, Nitti, Hansen and Ostensen who finished in 4:13.83.
Other names of Fairfield’s top-tier men who had a hand in Saturday’s landslide win that should be mentioned are Nelson who won the 50 SC Meter Freestyle (24.09), Finnegan in the 100 SC Meter Freestyle (54.64), Fair in both the 200 SC Meter Backstroke (2:08.56) and the 200 SC Meter Individual Medley (2:09.63), Ford in the 200 SC Meter Breaststroke (2:30.03) and Rahurahu in the 100 SC Meter Butterfly (57.09). Fairfield’s men also won the 400 SC Meter Freestyle Relay due to efforts by Hren, Rahurahu, Gori and Finnegan who stopped the clock at 3:34.80.
Next, the program will travel to Boston, MA for the Boston Winter Open hosted by Boston University from Friday, Feb. 7 to Saturday, Feb. 8. After that, they will take to Buffalo, NY for the 2020 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships where the women look to uphold their championship title for the third year in a row.
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