NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Winning three of the day's four relay events and grabbing individual 17 first places, the Iona College men's and women's swimming and diving team defeated Binghamton University in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
 
Before a boisterous, capacity crowd at the Hynes Pool, the Gaels topped the Bearcats in the women's meet 165-129 and pulled away at the end in the men's meet 173.5-120.50.
 
"Today is what college dual meet swimming is about! Every race and placing counted today and I know the swimmers all knew it. Binghamton brought a lot of area alums and fans to the meet," Iona head coach Nick Cavataro said. "With this being our last home meet of the semester, we had a huge cheering squad as well of parents and students. The atmosphere was electric today and the times were some of our best all season."
 
The Iona women had had seven different winners today, led by junior Kate Flynn; she took the top spot in the 50 and 100-free with respective times of 24.26 and 54.21, with the 50 being a season best. Senior Aly Chain posted a season best, winning the 100-fly at 58.82; freshman Isabella Nicholson won the 200-free at 1:57.0; junior Isabelle Pabon won the 200-individual medley at 2:13.46. The freshmen trio of Meghan Pattison, Taylor Spillman and Tristan Urso posted respective wins in the 200-back at 2:07.50, 200-fly at 2:10.47 and the 1,000-free at 10:49.62, all season bests.
 
"We have a great group of women who are working well together right now and where these seven won races today, they were backed up by a lot of 2-3-4-5 placings; both myself and coach Dorsey are very happy with where they are right now," Cavataro said. "But, they know we are still not even at the half way point mark on the season."
 
The Iona men saw the continued development of sophomore Jackson Madonia, who grabbed the top spot in the 100-breast (59.09); 200-breast (2:09.74) and the 200-IM (1:56.67). 
 
"Jackson sees some our competitions' best swimmers and attacks every race, he is fearless and he is positioning himself for a great season," Cavataro said.
 
Senior Matthew Anderson took the 500 and 1,000-freestyle events at 4:46.34 and 9:58.59, respectively. Junior Spencer Moran touched first in both the 100 and 200-back at 52.23 and 1:53.63, respectively. Conor Mullin and Jalen Ramjohn claimed the butterfly races with Mullin taking the 200 at 1:53.89 and Ramjohn won the 100 edition at 51.17. Freshman David Son came on strong on the back end of the 200-free to lead a 1-2-3 Iona sweep in the event at 1:44.89.
 
The Gaels travel to Southern Connecticut University next Saturday for their next meet.

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