Marist Men
The Marist men’s swimming and diving team opened its 2015-16 campaign with a tight, 10-point win at Canisius on Oct. 16. The Red Foxes edged the Golden Griffins 153.5-143.5 in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference dual meet held at Erie Community College, the site of the 2016 conference championships.
Out of the 14 Red Foxes making their collegiate debuts, four won their events and eight placed in the top three.
The 200-yard medley relay squad kicked off the meet by picking up 17 points for Marist with a first-place time of 1:37.39. The foursome of sophomore Robert McDowell, junior Harris Nagle, junior Mason Cassel and freshman Daniel Knoll finished just 0.44 seconds ahead of Canisius. Knoll’s split of 20.84 seconds was .10 seconds shy of his personal best and his time of 46.58 seconds as the anchor of the 400-yard freestyle relay squad was half a second off of his personal best.
Knoll picked up his first pair of individual collegiate victories in the 50- (21.57 seconds) and 100-yard (47.09 seconds) freestyle events. Classmate Miguel Basalo won the 1,000-yard freestyle event in 9:59.31, clipping junior Ryan Murphy by fewer than two seconds. Murphy did take first in the 200-(1:45.50) and 500-yard (4:40.44) events, however.
A Marist freshman trio of Mark Miller (2:00.82), Riley Stadel (2:00.95) and David Cantu (2:03.17) placed first through third, respectively, in the 200-yard IM.
Senior captain Josh Dodway took the top spot on the 1- and 3-meter boards. He tallied 282.60 points at one meter and 273. 53 points at three meters. Sophomore Peter Gallino finished second in the 3-meter event and freshman Nick Woska finished fifth on both boards.
Marist will host non-conference foe Fordham in its first home meet of the season at 6 p.m. Oct. 22 in McCann Natatorium.
Marist Women
The Marist women’s swimming and diving team picked up its 31st straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory to open the 2015-16 regular season, defeating Canisius, 169-122, on Oct. 16.
The Red Foxes kicked off the meet with a win from the 200-yard medley relay team of sophomore Georgia Goldman, junior Isabella Morreale, sophomore Daniela Gomez and junior Meredith Wurtz.
Individually, Morreale took first place in the 100- (1:07.92) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:26.56). Marist also dominated the freestyle events, as Wurtz earned the top spot at 100 (53.28s) and 200 (1:45.50) yards. The Red Foxes went 1-2-3 in the 500-yard event, with senior Bethany Powhida clocking in first with a Marist dual meet record time of 5:10.67, followed by sophomore Deirdre Connor (5:17.69) and sophomore Shannon Gordon (5:18.03).
Powhida won both backstroke events while Gordon also took the top spot in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:44.54.
On the diving boards, senior Renata Diotalevi earned 234.00 points to win the 1-meter event and placed second at three meters. In her collegiate debut, freshman Lauren Katz racked up 218.92 points in the 3-meter dive to finish first. Katz finished third at one meter, followed by freshmen Jessica Rieger and Grace Casolo.
The Red Foxes will host Fordham in their home opener at 6 p.m. Oct. 22. The Rams were one of only two squads to defeat Marist in dual meet competition last season.
