NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The Iona College men’s and women’s swimming & diving team picked up a pair of wins over Southern Connecticut State University Saturday afternoon.
Swimming in their second road meet in under 24 hours the Iona men claimed a 166-120 win over the defending Northeast 10 Conference Champions. The Iona women picked up their first win of the season capturing a 152-126 victory.
“I was very pleased at the discipline and determination the team demonstrated today,” commented Coach Nick Cavataro. “Going on the road is never easy and to perform at a strong level in back-to-back days is an indication our training is coming together.”
The Iona men had to bounce back following a narrow loss in the opening 200-yard medley relay. The Owls squad eked out the Maroon & Gold foursome of sophomore Matthew Bosse, juniors Chris Vadala, Zack Holbrook and seniors Keegan Boisson-Yates.
The Gaels responded by taking 10 of the next 12 individual events. Freshman Matthew Anderson and senior Collin Purrman went first-second in the 100-Free at 10:01.66 and 10:25.41, respectively.
Bosse and Boisson-Yates duplicated the effort in the 100-Back with respective times of 54.75 and 55.03. Junior Sam Braziel, Vadala and freshman Shane Syron swept the 100-Breaststroke with Braziel winning at 1:01.60. The trio later swept the 200-Breaststroke with Vadala touching first at 2:14.36.
The sprint freestyle events saw Holbrook take the pedestal at 22.20, while classmate junior Christian Foti touched the wall first in the 100-Free at 48.00.
Bosse and freshman Dranoel Truter provided an one-two punch in the 200-Back with times of 2:00.60 and 2:04.62. Boisson-Yates and sophomore Jude Zamora were the top two in the 100-Butterfly with e times of 53.60 and 53.82.
Purrman led the 200-IM from start to finish, winning at 2:00.80.
The Iona women won the first seven races of the day to put the meet out reach for SCSU. It began with the quartet of sophomore Jessica Schmidt, senior Kathryn Nevin, junior Alexandra DiBiase and freshman Alyssa Chain winning the 200-Medley Relay by just a tenth of a second at 1:52.87.
Senior Kaitlyn Mahon, freshman Anna Desiderio and freshman Alexandria Bay went 1-2-3 in the 1000-Free with Mahon taking the top spot at 11:06.60. Mahon would go on to win the 500-Free as well at 5:24.83.
The 200-Free saw Elizabeth Kaczmarek claim victory at 2:00.27. The junior later closed out the scoring winning the 200-Individual medley at 2:14.64.
DiBella, took the 100-back at 1:01.98 and was followed by the co-captain, Nevin taking the 100-Breaststroke by .01 at 1:11.34.
Bay, coming out of her third place effort in the 1000-Free, picked up her first collegiate win in the 200-Butterfly at 2:17.92
Chain claimed the 50-Free at 24.73 and later took the 100-Butterfly at 1:00.03.
The Maroon & Gold return to the pool on Saturday, Oct. 22 when they host Wagner Sacred Heart and St. Francis Brookyln.