Ft. Lauderdale, FL - The Iona College swimming and diving teams are down in Florida for their annual training session at the International Swimming Hall of Fame. The Gaels continued the training with a meet against Dickinson College. The Maroon and Gold claimed seven of the eight individual events and nine of the ten overall races as the men's team took a 60-29 win while the women's team downed the Red Devils 67-18.

"I was pleased with our efforts, particularly coming off five very challenging workout sessions in the previous 60 hours,” commented head coach Nick Cavataro. “I think our group enjoyed the chance to get up and race and even through they were racing tired, the times were representative."

Junior Amanda Cody grabbed the 100-Free with a time of 56.40, just edging out her teammate freshman Christine Larkin (57.01). Freshman Sam Cody touched the wall first in the 100-Fly at 1:02.16. Other winners included freshman Maggie Wood in the 100-Back (1:03.10) and senior Kerby Lewis in the 100-Breast (1:10.11). In the 200-Free relay, the team of Amanda Cody, Kerby Lewis, freshman Sarah Walker and junior Dana Paterson touched the wall at 1:46.20. Senior Amanda McCarthy freshman Bridget Casey, senior Kristin Heller and freshman Christine Williams touched the wall just 0.71 seconds later.

On the men's side, sophomore David Gartman edged out his rookie teammate Seth Tasman by 0.39 to take the 100-Free with a time of 49.01. Other winners included sophomore Matt Magura in the 100-Breast (1:01.10) and senior William Walsh in the 100-Fly (55.45). The team of senior Jason Felix, Tasman, Gartman, and Walsh grabbed the 200-Free relay with a time of 1:35.10.

The Gaels will continue training in Florida until Saturday, January 19. “The weather has so far been very good and that really enhances the approach of everyone and keeps intensity up,” said Cavataro. ““This time of the season, where challenging is also stimulating because we are so close to the end of the season.” The Gaels return to action as they travel to New Jersey to face Seton Hall on Tuesday, January 22 at 5 pm. ”We are in very key distance phase of our training and we'll be starting to specialize more and more as the week goes on gearing up for our last four dual meets of the season and MAAC championships.”