NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona College men's and women's swimming and diving team closed out the regular season with an impressive win over MAAC-rival Manhattan College on Senior Day at the Hynes Pool.
 
Before the official start of the meet, Iona honored three of its four seniors on the roster. Soon-to-be graduates Matthew Bosse, Maria DiBella and Jessica Schmidt received a nice send-off in front of a home crowd in New Rochelle. Senior Owen Badin was honored mid meet between breaks after returning from his LSAT exam.
 
On the men's side the Gaels posted a 172-116 victory taking the top spot in 12 of the 17 races. The Iona women cruised to a 195-74 win, grabbing 15 of the 17 races. The wins raise the women's season mark to 9-4 and the men's to 8-2 for the best combined regular season records in program history.
 
Schmidt closed out her Maroon & Gold career with a pair of wins in the 200-freestyle and 200-backstroke with times of 2:00.34 and 2:13.48, respectively. Sophomore Kate Flynn took the gold in the 50 and 100-freestyle events. Freshman Sydney Ruschmeier posted her first double win day of her young career with first place times of 2:16.58 and 5:29.75 in the 200-butterfly and 500-freestyle, respectively.
 
Other women picking up individual wins on the day included junior Amanda Agostino in the 200-breast; sophomore Adrienne Bilello in the 1000-freestyle; junior Ashley Cave in the 100-breaststroke; sophomore Isabelle Pabon in the 400-IM; sophomore Kendall Paolicelli in the 200-IM; rookie Rebecca Sembrano in the 100-backstroke and junior Simone Sturrup in the 100-butterfly.
 
The men's side saw junior co-captain Matthew Anderson; freshman Jackson Madonia and junior Jamey Whaley all grab a pair of wins each.
 
Anderson claimed the 100-free and 400-IM races at 9:46.28 and 4:07.20, respectively. Madonia touched first in the 100 and 200-breaststrokes at 1:00.40 and 2:12.50 and Whaley was first in the 200-Butterfly at 1:55.87 and in the 200-IM at 2:00.22.
 
Four men grabbed one win each: freshmen Aidan Holbrook in the 200-freestyle; sophomore Spencer Moran in the 100-free; rookie Jalen Ramjohn in the 100-butterfly and sophomore Delano Townsend in the 50-free.
 
One of the day's highlights was the final relay where an Iona relay team made up entirely of freshmen faced off against a team of upperclassmen Gael racers. The results
saw the young Gael quartet of Daniel Hadary (47.15); Jalen Ramjohn (28.13); Jackson Madonia (48.48) and Aidan Holbrook (46.49) post a time of 3:10.25 to hold off a team of veterans that included sophomore Conor Mullin (47.78); Bosse (48.30); Anderson (48.73) and Moran (46.74) at 3:11.55.
 
"It's not often that we can set up relay races like this; however, our team really has been swimming well and they were really motivated to compete," head coach Nick Cavataro said. "I don't recall ever seeing eight legs all under 48.70 in my time here and to have two men go 46 is very exciting."
 
Next up for the Iona College swimming and diving team is a trip to Buffalo for the MAAC Championships. The postseason tournament meet will run from February 13-16.