This past weekend, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving team’s shipped up to Boston to compete against the Boston University Terriers. After two weeks off, and coming off of a successful 3-0 start, the men were amply rested and prepared to take on the tough competition that the Terriers posed.
The Rams first win came in the men’s 1,000-yd freestyle with a victory from senior swimmer, Steve Sholdra, in a time of 9:43:31. Sholdra had another dominating day in the pool as he finished first in his two other races, the 200-yd butterfly and the 500-yd freestyle.
Sholdra was the only Fordham men’s swimmer to individually finish first in his respective race. In his 400-yd freestyle relay with Thomas Shetler, Thomas Gillespie and Liam Semple, the team was just outouched by Boston University’s four.
Yet despite the loss in the 400-yd freestyle, sophomore Liam Semple continued to show signs of extreme progress. Semple finished third in the 500-yd freestyle and was the first Fordham swimmer to finish in the 200-yd freestyle. He finished a very close second with a season-best-time of 48.06 seconds in the 100-yd freestyle.
After the race, Semple said that he was happy with his performance, although he expects to continue to improve throughout the remainder of the season.
“[I’m] hoping to break the team record in the 200-yd freestyle and get under 4.00 in the 400-yd individual medley and 4.28 in the 500-yd freestyle,” Semple said.
Despite the Rams’ performance, the Terriers defeated the Rams by a score of 190-107.
With regards to the overall team’s performance, Semple was not disappointed with the team’s loss.
“Boston University is really tough competition and we traveled a long way,” Semple said.
More than anything else, Liam is impressed by the performance of the freshman class.
“Our freshmen continue to contribute a lot to the team,” he said. “They’ve stepped up to fill in the holes left by last year’s seniors, which gives a lot to our team performance and morale.”
The women’s team found themselves with the same result, a 191-109 loss to the Terriers.
The women’s team was spearheaded by the efforts of swimmers junior Morgan Fairclough, senior Shannon Lulley and sophomore diver Wendy Espina-Esquivel, all three placing first in their individual events. Fairclough finished first in the 100-yd backstroke with a time of 58.11 seconds, and Lulley took first place in the 50-yd freestyle with a time of 24.25 seconds.
Espina-Esquivel continued to own the diving pool, as she broke away from the competition in both of her events. Espina-Esquivel finished first in the 1-m dive, scoring a 263.10, and finished first in the 3-m dive with a score of 241.20.
After the tough competition on both sides this past weekend, the Fordham Rams were not phased.
“From top to bottom we put up a lot of promising swims that leave us hopeful for when we taper at the end of the season,” Semple said.
The Fordham women’s swimming team (3-2) will continue its season this Friday as they host LIU-Post. The men’s swimming team (3-1) will travel to the Bucknell Invitational on Nov. 20.
