The University of Rhode Island hosted the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams of both Fairfield University and the United States Coast Guard Academy at the URI invitational in Kingston, RI on Friday, Jan. 24.
On the women’s end, they have had a rather unpredictable season, with an overall record of 3-7. However, they showed up to compete fiercely in Rhode Island for the non-team scoring meet. Sophomore Lauren Olczak took home the first place spot in the 1650 Yard Freestyle event, clocking in at 18:23.28. Junior Maria Nitti (25.32), Sara Ostensen ’21 (25.91), Samantha D’Alessandro ’22 (25.13) and Emily Holman ’20 (25.24) made up that relay came in half of a second behind the event-winning URI team in the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay with a team time of 1:41.60. D’Alessandro continued her success on the individual stage when she participated in the 50 Yard Freestyle, and earned another second place finish, stopping the clock at 25.59.
There were a handful of third place finishers who represented the Stags in enemy waters. Junior Haleigh McLaughlin (2:19.55) finished in third behind URI’s Caitlin Guccione (2:11.51) and the Coast Guard’s Ashley Fuller (2:18.31). Senior Colleen Young registered a time of 2:29.31 in the 200 Yard Breaststroke. Junior Sara Ostensen finished the 100 Yard Butterfly in just over a minute, at 1:01.29.
For the men, Friday marked a historic day due to graduate student Erik Hren’s remarkable performance in the 1650 Yard Freestyle. His time of 15:50.7 cemented his name in the university’s record books as the fastest in this specific event to date. Additionally, Hren’s new personal best puts him in second in this event in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for the 2019-2020 season. Closely behind Hren were Patrick Boyle ’22 (16:22.53) and Brendan Finnegan ’20 (16:41.95). The 200 Yard Medley Relay team comprised of Will Robinson ’23 (25.06), Peter Sloan ’22 (26.68), Jordan Rahurahu ’20 (23.59) and Ian Nelson ‘20 (21.83) produced a 1:37.16 minute long performance which warranted second place. First-year Guillem Perez took home second and third place recognition in the 200 yard Breaststroke (2.13.79) and the 100 Yard Breaststroke (1:01.36) respectively.
Sophomore Evan Fair finished the 400 Yard Individual Medley in 4:11.67 and later hit the water again as a member of the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay alongside Brendan Finnegan ’20, Hren and Peter Gori ’22 who rounded out the day of competition in third place (1:28.58) behind two teams representing the Coast Guard.
The Stags will return home to the Recplex pool once more this season against the Manhattan College Jaspers on Saturday, Feb. 1. The 2020 MAAC Championships are just weeks away and are slated to begin on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
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