NEW ROCHELLE, NY - In an action pack meet that saw race upsets, ties, disqualifications, come from behind victories and season best times all in front of a large raucous crowd, the Iona College men's and women's Swimming and Diving team came away with a pair wins Friday night at the Hynes Athletics Center Pool over Providence College.
 
The Iona women raised their season mark to 4-1 with a hard fought 140.5 to 133.5 win as the Iona men took control late to win 147.5 to 123.5 to remain perfect on the season with a 4-0 record.

Key Performers

The Iona women were led by three wins from Isabella Nicholson (200-free, 100-free, 200-IM) and double wins from juniors Tristan Urso (1000-Free, 500-Free) and Julia Moser (100-Breast, 200-Breast). 

The Iona men had sophomore Michael Faughnan remain undefeated with 3 wins (1000-Free, 200-Free, 500-Free) and was backed up by two each from Graduate students Spencer Moran (100-Back, 200-Back) and Conor Mullin (100-Fly, 200-Fly) with a pair each. Junior Emil Bajramovic continued his strong swimming with a win in the 100-Breast.

women's MEET

The meet started off with swim meet rarity, a tie in the Women's 200-Medley Relay with the Iona quartet of Rebecca Sembrano, Moser, Grace Curry and Katherine Lee touching at the wall with the Providence team. The Iona women went back-and forth with Urso (1000-Free) and Nicholson (200-Fre) building a small lead. However, Providence came back with second and thirds in the races, before taking the 100-Back. The Iona women returned with what was the turning point in the meet with Moser, Megan Josephs and Kate DiRaimo going 1-2-3 in the 100-Breaststroke and backed it up with a 1-2 effort in the 200-Fly from Taylor Spillman and Isabelle Pabon.
 
The Friars answered with a 1-2 effort in the 50-Free, the 1-M Diving before Isabella Nicholson took the 100-Free. Providence returned with a win in 200-Back, but the Iona duo of Moser and Josephs went 1-2 200-Breast, followed by wins by Urso in the 500 and Nicholson in the 200-IM.

"Today was about every woman on the roster getting out there and contributing. We had 15 different women score today and that depth is what allowed us to win," commented Coach Nick Cavataro.

Men's MEET

The Iona men were stunned in the opening 200-Medley Relay, getting touched out by .4 by the visitors, but things were snapped back by Faughnan, who repeated one of swimming's toughest doubles, taking the 1000-Free and 200-Free in back to back races in the span of about 3:00 minutes.

"Michael is a special freestyler who enjoys the challenge of trying to do something difficult. Where his 1000-Free today was 9:54.29 and very controlled over the 40-lengths, the 200-Free was all gas with a 1:40.59 swim, which was one of our fastest regular season times ever at Iona. The big thing is that teammate Daniel Hadary chased him to a season best at 1:43.77. Both men are in a good spot right now," commented Cavataro.
 
Moran (100-Back), Bajramovic (100-Breast), Mullin (200-Fly) each took the next three races before Providence's Will Layden took the 50-Free and 100-Free to close the gap. Moran combined with David Son for a 1-2 effort in the 200-Back and Faughnan and Hadary duplicated the 200-free finish in the 500-Free. Mullin closed the winning run with a 51.05 100-Butterfly win and then the quartet of Faughnan, Moran, Aidan Holbrook and Hadary touched at 3:07.85. 5 ahead of the Friars to close-out the meet.

Up Next

Iona returns to action in a week as they hit the road for a conference meet with Monmouth University in New Jersey on November 5th. The meet is scheduled for a 4 p.m. start time.

SOCIAL MEDIA