The Regis College men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams hosted a dual meet against Gordon College on Saturday morning in Weston, Mass. The Pride Men’s team won 127-112 while the Fighting Scots defeated the Women’s squad 137-121.
“Both teams did an incredible job today,” said Coach Sweeney. “Last year Gordon beat us handily in both the men and the women, and even more so on the men’s side by 40 points. This year we continued to race really well and had many in season best times. On the women’s side the meet came down to the last relay which was awesome even though we came up short. On the men’s side we clinched the meet on the second to last event, and capped it off with a great win in the final relay. We have one more meet next weekend to fine tune some things before the GNAC Championships Dec 6-7.”
For the men, the 200 medley relay team of Kiet Luong (Malden, Mass.) reining Great Northeast Athletic Conference Swimmer of the Week A.J. Graf (Newton, Mass.), Nick Rainville (Reading, Mass.) and Rob Ekberg (Northbridge, Mass.) took the top time at 1:43.10. Luong added wins in the 200 yard butterfly (2:01.24), 200 yard backstroke (2:14.54) and the 200 yard individual medley (2:04.33). Graf also finished first in the 50 yard freestyle (22.93) and Rainville, the reigning GNAC Rookie of the Week, topped out in the 100 yard freestyle (50.79) also in the 50 yard butterfly (25.53).
Another team of men also won the 400 yard freestyle relay. Cassidy Bastinelli (Newton, Mass.), Ekberg, Michael Bruno (Winthrop, Mass.) and Graf took the event in 3:31.52. Bastinelli also recorded a first place finish in the 50 yard backstroke (28.71).
On the women's side, the 200 yard medley relay team of current GNAC Rookie of the Week Jessica Higgins (Peabody, Mass.), Lucia Llorente-Ruiz (Newton, Mass.), Shannan O'Neil (Lowell, Mass.), and Ashlyn Deroche (North Reading, Mass.) added another win in their event with a time of 2:01.37. The foursome would also add victories in other events as Higgins took the 50 yard backstroke (31.51), Llorente-Ruiz would take the 50 yard breaststroke (35.74), O’Neil would place first in two events the 50 yard freestyle (27.60) and the 50 yard butterfly (29.70). Deroche also added another victory in the 100 yard freestyle (59.50).
Haley Bowen (Litchfield, N.H.) also won two races for the Pride, posting victories in the 200 yard breaststroke (2:41.00) and the 200 yard individual medley (2.29.31).
Both teams return to the pool next Saturday when Regis travels to St. Joseph’s College of Maine for a dual meet.
