NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona College men's and women's swimming and diving team opened up their home season today at the Hynes Athletic Center Pool with their annual Quad Invitational Swimming & Diving Meet.

The meet featured the women's teams from Iona, Sacred Heart, Wagner and St. Francis Brooklyn.  SFC also brought their men's program to swim off against the Maroon & Gold.

The 13-event meet, which included a pair of relay events along with 1 and 3-meter springboard competition, had more than 225 entries and 45 heats when all was said and done.

Wagner women came away as the big winner picking up three wins defeating St. Francis (159-68), Sacred Heart (145-89) and Iona (162-74).  The Pioneer women claimed a pair wins by defeating the Terriers (129-84) and edging the Gaels (126-101) in a back and forth affair.

On the men's side, the Maroon & Gold rolled past St. Francis Brooklyn, 140-64.

The split day for the Iona women brings its record to 2-4 on the season and the men's mark climbs to 3-0.

The meet, which featured heat competition as well as dual meet scoring, saw an exciting start with the Women's 400-Medley Relay.  Junior Jessica Schmidt, freshman Kate DiRaimo, sophomore Alyssa Chain and rookie Willow Lopez-Silvers edged Sacred Heart at 4:03.89 to 4:03.98.

In individual action, Chain and senior Elizabeth Kaczmarek each picked up second place in the 50-Freestyle at 24.47 and 200-IM at 2:13.79, respectively.  They were the highest overall placings on the day for the women.

The men's dual meet action saw six men claim a combined nine wins. Freshmen Gabriel Finch recorded wins in the 200-IM at 2:00.21 and the 200-Back at 1:57.07. Rookie Spencer Moran grabbed wins in the 100-Freestyle at 48.09 and the 200-Freestyle at 1:48.41 with classmate Conor Mullin winning the 200-Butterfly at 1:57.06. Freshmen diver Eric Cruz, won both the 1 and 3-meter events with respective scores of 167.45 and 149.25. Senior Zack Holbrook won the 50-Freestyle at 22.09.

"Every swimmer demonstrated improvement today in their race strategy and in some cases the time results showed that as well. We will have to be much better top to bottom next week at Bryant as well as with Monmouth and Providence in November to compete for victories," commented head coach Nick Cavataro.

The programs return to action on Saturday, Oct. 28 at Smithfield, RI with a rivalry meet against the Bryant Bulldogs.

Fans can keep up with the latest news and excitement surrounding Iona swimming & diving by following the team on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.