Fairfield Falls to Marist

The Fairfield University men’s and women’s swimming and diving team saw eight program records fall, but the Stags could not overtake league foe Marist College this evening at the RecPlex. The Red Foxes topped the Stags 182-116 on the women’s side and 176-120 on the men’s.

Sophomore Michelle Yoshida (Kaneohe, Hawaii) set two individual records and was a part of two relay records while classmate Lauren Kennedy (Belmont, Mass.) set two individual and one relay standard for the women’s team.

Yoshida captured the 200 free with a time of 2:10.38 to break her own record of 2:10.62. Yoshida also captured the 100 free with a time of 59.42 seconds, breaking Jen Masi’s record of 1:00.25 set in 2005.  Kennedy, meanwhile, posted a time of 1:17.17 in the 100 breaststroke to break Liz Lawlor’s standard of 1:17.31 which was set in 2005. Kennedy finished in second place in the 100 breaststroke behind Marist’s Kaitlyn Larkin’s time of 1:16.48. In the 200 breaststroke, Kennedy captured the event with a record-setting time of 2:45.02, breaking her own program record by more than two seconds.

The women’s 200 medley relay of Yoshida, Kennedy, freshman Cacky Keating (Chatham, N.J.) and freshman Caitlin Moran (West Henrietta, N.Y.) was victorious with a time of 2:05.59, breaking their own school record by nearly a second. The women’s 200 freestyle relay of Moran, Keating, sophomore Teresa Garrity (Middlebury, Conn.), and Yoshida earned first-place points with a time of 1:52.15, breaking the standard of 1:53.63 set last season.

For the men, freshman Paul Bimmler (Reading, Mass.) was a part of two records on the night and won an individual event. In the 100 free, Bimmler broke his own school record in the 100 free with a time of 54.68 seconds but was touched out by Marist’s Steven Vendetta who clocked a time of 54.63 seconds. Bimmler did capture the 50 free in a time of 24.63 seconds, missing his own school record by a tenth of a second.

Bimmler anchored the men’s 200 freestyle relay which set a new program record with a time of 1:38.20. The quartet of sophomore Andrew Robinson (Manalapan, N.J.), senior Boris Romanovsky (Marblehead, Mass.), sophomore Greg Bellizzi (Edison, N.J.), and Bimmler were touched out by Marist which finished in 138.05.

Fairfield has a quick turnaround and will travel to Riverdale, N.Y. for a MAAC double-dual with Manhattan and Siena.