It was another big day of action for the Fordham swimming & diving team on Saturday, as the team hosted both the La Salle Explorers and the defending Atlantic 10 women’s champion, Richmond Spiders.
The day ended with the Fordham women winning against both opponents, defeating Richmond, 159-140, and La Salle, 218-81, while the Fordham men fell short to La Salle, 177-121.
The closest of the match-ups was between arguably the top two women’s teams in the Atlantic 10, which saw Fordham and Richmond tied at 122 with three events to go: the 100 butterfly, the 200 individual medley, and the 400 freestyle relay.
Fordham came through with flying colors, outscoring the Spiders in each of those events to post the win. Sophomore Megan Polaha was a big contributor to the Fordham wins, posting event wins in the 100 butterfly in a season-best time of 55.51 seconds, as well as in the 200 individual medley (2:05.85) and the 200 butterfly (2:02.08).
Sophomore Kalena Laurent and junior Shannon Lulley came up with two event wins each, as Laurent won the 200 (1:53.97) and 500 (5:04.44) freestyle, while Lulley won the 50 (23.92) and 100 (52.42) freestlye events. Seniors Megan Zarriello and Victoria McGovern also won individual events with Zarriello taking the 1000 freestyle in a season-best time of 10:23.56 and McGovern winning the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.55.
The Fordham win over Richmond was then sealed victory a win in the 400 freestyle relay, where Megan Gray, Laurent, Erin McBride, and Chandler Lulley posted a time of 3:31.39.
In the men’s meet against La Salle, junior Steve Sholdra and freshman Liam Semple were stellar in loss.
Sholdra won three individual events, taking the 1000 freestyle in a season-best time of 9:24.45, as well as the 200 butterfly (1:51.13) and the 500 freestyle (4:36.83).
Semple won the 200 freestyle event in a season-best time of 1:43.12, while taking second in the 100 freestyle (47.63) and the 500 freestyle (4:39.49), where he set personal-best times this season.
Both Sholdra and Semple figured into the final event win of the day, as the duo joined Patrick Militti and Joe Mercurio to win the 400 freestyle relay in 3:10.67.
Beside these five event wins, freshman J.T. Klimko was the last event winner for the Rams in the meet, as he took first in the 100 backstroke in 52.65 seconds.
The Fordham Rams will next be in action on Saturday, January 31st, when the Rams host Massachusetts at 1:00 PM.
The Richmond swimming and diving team split the results of their meet in New York Saturday, dispatching La Salle 209-90, but falling to the host Fordham Rams 159-140 at the Col. Francis B. Messmore Aquatic Center in The Bronx.
With the La Salle result in hand, the meet with Fordham literally came down to the final relay, but the Spiders could not claim the top two spots required to get the win.
“Fordham had a great meet,” said Spiders head coach Matt Barany. “This is such a fun trip for us. Being able to enjoy New York last night and having tight racing today only strengthens our team chemistry. I wish the women could have won today, but we’ll learn and roll forward.”
Richmond swimmers were setting season-best times in many events. In the distance events, Junior Molly McSweeney (Stoneham, Massachusetts) posted a season-best 5:08.74 in the 500 Free, while fellow junior Emma Terwilliger (Niskayna, New York) swam a 10:30.68 in the 1000 Free.
Freshman Annie Lane (Vinton, Virginia / William Byrd HS) improved her team-best time in the 200 Free with a 1:54.09 result.
In the backstroke, freshman Hannah Verrette (Marblehead, Massachusetts) also beat her team-best time in the 200, down to 2:05.63 in that event. Sophomore Maggie Pope (Nashville, Tennessee) improved a pair of times, swimming a 57.43 in the 100 and a 2:05.49 in the 200, improving that time by more than a full second from her previous season best.
In the diving events, freshman Laura Rokop (Carmel, Indiana) improved both her 1m and 3m springboard scores, nearly posting an NCAA Zone-qualifying score in the 1m, with a 264.10, blowing away her previous best by more than 30 points.
Sophomore Irina Chiulli (Westwood, Massachusetts) beat her already A-10 best score in the 3m, pushing that score to 297.70. She once again posted a score in both the 1m and 3m that was above the Zone-qualifying standard. The Spiders went 1-2 in both the 3m and 1m events against both squads.
“I am excited about the divers competed today,” said head diving coach Sean Letsinger. “This was the most consistent that they have performed yet this season. When we dive consistently, we are very hard to beat.
Richmond will be at home next Saturday for the final time this season, hosting James Madison for senior day on campus. Action gets underway at noon.
