NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Led by nine first-place finishes, the Iona College men's swimming and diving squad came away with their first home victory of the season, 144-78, over non-conference foe St. Francis College (NY) on Saturday afternoon at the Hynes Aquatic Center.
Freshman
James Cooney swept the diving portion with scores of 168.24 on the one-meter and 186.90 on the three-meter boards.
In the 1,000-Free, the Gaels took three of the top four spots, with sophomore
Nick Kotonias winning the race at 10:24.86. Junior Zachary Benoit followed in second place at 10:50.62 and then O'Connor came in fourth at 11:33.55.
Iona continued its winning ways in the 200-Free with a first and third place finish. Sophomore
Justin Grigull finished first with a time of 1:48.82 and junior Joe DeLeone came in third at 1:49.61.
Iona placed second and third in the 50-Free with freshman
Kristian Bocage and Stiles coming in second and third, respectively. Bocage finished at 22.83 and Stiles at 23.44.
Yacobacci won the 200-yard IM and his 400-yard medley teammate Elfert finished just ahead of St. Francis swimmer Jon Pepaj at 2:08.44. Sophomore
Ryan Bacci came in fourth at 2:10.82.
Yacobacci then came in second place in his next race, the 200-Butterfly at 2:04.31. Junior
Jay Wegimont and Wu came in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Elfert remained a top swimmer in the meet, as he won the 100-Free over St. Francis top swimmer Andrew Reed at 49.90. Stiles and senior
Joshua Eller finished strongly in third and fourth place for the Gaels.
The hosts continued to dominate the met in the 200-Backstroke taking first and second place, as Grigull and Wallace paced the five-man race. Grigull took the victory at 2:01.38, while Wallace came in at 2:06.54.
In the final races of the meet, Iona sophomore
Nick Kotonias took the 500-Freestyle race at 5:01.20, with good performances in third place by Benoit finishing at 5:13.80 and junior
Marty Callinan at 5:21.91.
In the 200-Backstroke, France and Bacci finished second and third, respectively, along with a second and third place finish by the Gaels' “A” and “B” team in the 400-Freestyle relay.
The Gaels will return to the pool this Tuesday as they take on Seton Hall at 5 p.m. from South Orange, N.J.
