The Iona men and Providence College women came up with wins, as the schools split a non-conference dual on Saturday. Collin Purrman and Christian Foti picked up double wins to help Iona to a 132-73 win. Providence College posted a 130-75 victory over the Iona women.
Iona:
PROVIDENCE, RI – The Iona College men’s and women’s swimming and diving team closed out the second half of its weekend trip to New England with a men’s victory and a women’s loss in non-conference action at the Big East’s Providence College.
Swimming head-to-head for the first time in the program’s history against the Friars, The men’s team dominated 132-73, winning 10 of a possible 13 events. The women slipped behind early with four second loss in the meet’s opening event, the 400-meter medley relay and never recovered. The Friars peeled off six wins in row before junior Natalie Bowman took the 100-meter freestyle. The final score was 130-75 in favor of the home team.
The meet – contested in short course meters – saw junior Collin Purrman take the 800-meter freestyle and 200-meter individual medley; sophomore Christian Foti win the 200- and 400-meter freestyles; senior Tommy Keefe take the 50-meter free; junior Dylan Mechanicwin the 200-meter butterfly; junior Matthew Rothmanwin the 100-meter freestyle and sophomore Chris Vadala win the 200-meter breaststroke. Senior MaryEllen Mangione was the other individual winner for the Women, taking the 200-meter breaststroke.
The Gaels compete in at a short course 25-meter distance about once a year and saw five school records set in Saturday’s meet. Purrman lowered the 800-meter freestyle record from 8:50.83, set in 2010 by Joseph De Leone to 8:47.31. Rothman broke the 100-free mark of 53.91 set by David Gartman in 2010 with his 53.61 winning time.
The other three records came in relay events. The 200-meter freestyle relay team of freshman Jessica Schmidt, junior Natalie Bowman, senior Melissa Dorsch and junior Katie Nevin lowered the 2014 time of 1:52.16 to 1:51.14. The men’s 200-meter version lowered the 2014 time of 1:39.24 to 1:38.45 as Rothman, sophomore Zack Holbrook, Foti and Keefe combined.
The final mark came in the Men’s 400-meter medley relay where sophomore David Ciavarelli, Vadala, freshman Jude Zamora and Rothman posted a 4:05.73, lowering the 2012 standard of 4:12.58.
“To come away from this weekend trip with three wins and a lot of strong and positive efforts, really sets up nicely for the next part of our season and some great racing,” commented Coach Nick Cavataro.
Swimming news courtesy of Iona Swimming & Diving.
