Next, women’s swimming and diving will head to the Bucknell Invitational. Samuel Joseph/The Ram
By Drew Casey
Amid a very busy Friday in the Rose Hill Gym, the Fordham women’s swimming and diving team defeated LIU-Post 169-122 at the Colonel Francis B. Messmore Aquatic Center.
“I think we performed well considering how fatigued we all were from a hard week of practices,” senior captain Savannah Coe said. “This is the point of the season where we are all pretty beaten down, but everyone still stepped up and gave it their best effort.”
That evening, the Rams finished first in nine of 16 events. Freshman Erin McBride and junior Shannon Lulley led the way for the team, each winning two individual events.
McBride, a Cherry Hill, New Jersey native, touched first in both of the distance events. She took the 500-yard freestyle in 5:11.86 and the 1000-yard freestyle in 10:38.78. McBride, who competed in three sports in high school, also was part of the winning 400- yard freestyle relay team. The other three members of the victorious relay team were sophomores Kalena Laurent and Megan Polaha and junior Chandler Lulley.
Shannon Lulley’s two event wins did not go unnoticed; she won the 50-yard freestyle in 24.27 seconds and touched first in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:08.27.
The Friday evening meet was a bit unusual, as the men’s swim team did not compete at the same time as the women’s. This was due to the fact that LIU-Post does not have a men’s swimming team.
“Swimming without the boys caused the meet to run a lot faster,” senior captain Frances Warren said. “It made it a tougher meet to race in since there was less rest, butit was great having them up in the stands cheering for us.”It certainly was a quick meet, as the competition concluded well before the men’s basketball team tipped off its season at 8 p.m. in the Rose Hill Gym.The squad’s other four event wins came in both swimming and diving.
Senior Megan Zarriello captured the 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.29, and sophomore Morgan Fairclough was fastest in the 100- yard breaststroke. Freshman Natalie Wodniak took the one-meter dive with a score of 212.40, and senior Hailey Cox placed first in the three-meter dive, posting a score of 217.05.The Rams also took second place in 11 of the 14 individual events.
Junior Anna Marshall was second fastest in both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke, while Laurent came up just short in both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly. Freshman Regina Foley had the second-highest score in both the 1-meter dive and 3-meter dive, and sophomore Natalie Malicki placed second in the 500-yard freestyle.Senior Victoria McGovern fin- ished second in the 1000-yard freestyle, while fellow senior Spencer Chappell touched second in the 100-yard backstroke.
Rounding out the second place finishes were Fairclough and Polaha, who took second place in the 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard freestyle, respectively.The Fordham women’s team is now 4-1 this season, while the men’s team remains 1-3.
Both will travel to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania this week for the three-day Bucknell Invitational. Competition begins on Friday, and follows a preliminary and finals format.“Bucknell is a great opportunity for us to basically have a run-through of what A-10s will be like,” Coe said.
