In its second tight, non-conference meet in a row, the Marist men's swimming and diving team fell on the road to the Seton Hall Pirates of the Big East on Saturday afternoon. In a competition that came down to the final event, the Red Foxes came up just short by a score of 155-145. Sophomore Jason Ruddy (Lake Katrine, N.Y.) collected two of his squad's seven wins to highlight Marist's effort versus the Pirates.
Competing in three individual efforts, Ruddy nearly went three-for-three if not for a split-second defeat in his first swim of the day, the 100-yd breaststroke. In his initial event of the afternoon, the sophomore was out-touched by Seton Hall's Ryan O'Shaughnessy by a 59.25 to 59.97 decision. From there, Ruddy would sweep the butterfly races with a 1:57.23 time in the 200-yd discipline and a 52.02 time in the 100. He was also a victor in relay action as he swam the third leg in the 200-yd medley. Swimming with sophomores Dylan Cummings (Midland Park, N.J.) and John Spitzer (Fairport, N.Y.), and senior Brian Shannon (Baldwin, N.Y.), the team won the first relay of the day with a time of 1:37.50.
Cummings and Spitzer would augment their team win with individual victories later on in the meet. Cummings won a close battle in the 100-yd backstroke race with a 53.78 result, while Spitzer won the 50-yd freestyle with a time of 21.61.
Junior Nick Spinella (Franklin Square, N.Y.) was the fourth individual Red Fox to collect a victory as he won the 200-yd backstroke event with a 1.26-second win at 1:55.88. He nearly had a second win in the 200-yd freestyle as he came up just 0.27-seconds short of Brian Pauling at 1:45.66.
Marist's final win of the day came in the 400-yd freestyle relay. The team of Tyler Ferraro (Southbury, Conn.), Caleb Camp (Chapel Hill, N.C.), Spitzer and Spinella held off Seton Hall's "A" team with a final time of 3:14.97.
Sophomore Sean Sullivan (Huntington, N.Y.) also had a trio of strong performances on Saturday with three second place results. In the 500-yd freestyle, he swam to a time of 4:50.31, while in the 1000-yd freestyle he finished with a time of 9:53.35. In the 200-yd butterfly, he raced to a 1:59.58 time.
In diving action, Jacob Baker (Shavertown, Pa.) led Marist's effort in 1-meter action with a second place finish of 280.73. The sophomore came up just 0.30 points shy of defeating Seton Hall's Ben Mitchell, who finished at 281.03. In 3-meter action, junior Sean Molloy (Slingerlands, N.Y.) was the top scoring Red Fox with a second place finish of 272.48.
The Red Foxes will close out their regular season next Saturday, Feb. 2 with a home meet versus Binghamton. Following a Senior Day ceremony for the graduating class of 2013, the meet is slated to begin at 1:00 p.m.
In their closest competition of the year, the Marist women's swimming and diving team (9-1, 6-0 MAAC) earned a 157.5-142.5 victory over Seton Hall (7-1) on the road on Saturday afternoon. The Red Foxes were led by multiple victories from junior Maddie Arciello (Missoula, Mont.) and sophomore Kimberly Tobias (San Jose, Calif.), who combined for four of Marist's nine wins versus the Pirates.
Arciello led Marist's effort in swimming events as she swept the sprint freestyle races. In the 50-yd race, the junior swam to a 0.47-second victory at 24.68, while she nearly tripled her margin of victory in the 100-yd freestyle with a 1.30-second win at 53.70.
On the other end of the pool, Tobias equaled Arciello's production with two wins of her own in diving events. The sophomore's day began with a 261.00-point showing on the 1-meter board; 23.92 points clear of second place. She capped her day with 267.45 points in the 3-meter to hold off teammate Chelaine Eliazar (Honolulu, Hawaii). This 1-2 showing by Red Foxes was augmented by a fourth place finish by freshman Renata Diotalevi (Madison,Conn.) to give the visitors 15 important points in their late meet comeback.
Seniors Kate Conard (East Setauket, N.Y.), Erica Vitale (Sterling, Conn.) and Katie Larkin (Huntington, N.Y.) continued Marist's comeback in the next event, the 200-yd IM, with a 1-2-3 finish. Conard earned the victory with a final time of 2:11.28. Vitale completed the event at 2:13.01, while Larkin came in at 2:14.57.
Earlier in the meet both Vitale and Larkin came out on top of their own events as Vitale won the 200-yd butterfly with a time of 2:08.65 and Larkin the 200-yd breaststroke at 2:27.75.
Freshman Bethany Powhida (Delmar, N.Y.) was the sixth Red Fox to earn an individual win versus Seton Hall as she won the 200-yd backstroke with a final time of 2:07.64, 1.89-seconds clear of the field.
After collecting 15 points from the 3-meter board and 16 from the 200-yd IM race, the outcome of the meet would come down to the final event, the 400-yd freestyle relay. There the "A" team of Bridget Curley (Endwell, N.Y.), Emily Miles (Long Valley, N.J.), Bonnie Orr (Fresno, Calif.) and Powhida would hold off Seton Hall "A" with a 3:38.83 time. Of note, Miles put 2.09 seconds between the Red Foxes and Pirates with a third leg of 55.02 versus 57.11 for her opponent.
The Red Foxes will close out their regular season next Saturday, Feb. 2 with a home meet versus Binghamton. Following a Senior Day ceremony for the graduating class of 2013, the meet is slated to begin at 1:00 p.m.
