FAIRFIELD, CT – The Iona College women's swimming and diving team hit the pool for their first meet of the season and made a big splash, upending the three-time MAAC Champion Fairfield Stags, 155-137, in Connecticut.
Led by a career day by senior
Kate Flynn with three individual wins, one relay win, three school and pool records; the Iona women overcame a 41-6 deficit after the first three events to take the win.
The Stags jumped out to the big lead after wins in the 1 and 3-meter springboard diving events and 200-meter medley relay. The last time these two teams saw each other was in Buffalo at the 2020 MAAC Championships where Iona fell short of knocking the Stags off at the MAAC Championships by 24 points in the four-day event.
"We talked all week if we were going to overcome Fairfield's diving strength, we needed big efforts from all our women today, with every race placing important," commented head coach
Nick Cavataro. "We got that today up and down our line-up, led by Flynn. Both Coach
Bryan Dorsey and I are very proud of our group."
"Kate was fantastic today. She was very determined and focused today to excel and it showed in every length," said Cavataro
The Ossining, New York resident touched first in the 50-meter freestyle at 26.34; the 100-freestyle at 58.07 and 100-butterfly at 1:04.06. All three times were Iona school records for the 25-meter racing course with the 50 and 100 records in the Fairfield Rec Plex Pool. Flynn also anchored the Gaels 400-freestyle relay combining with teammates
Katherine Lee,
Samantha Whitney and
Isabella Nicholson to a pool and school record at 4:00.15.
Other winners included freshman
Megan Josephs, who touched first in the 100 and 200-meter breaststrokes, where Iona took the top three scoring spots to post a combined 32-to-6 point margin. The 100-breast saw Josephs tie with senior teammate
Kate DiRaimo at 1:15.69, with senior
Kendall Paolicelli third. The 200-race saw Josephs touch first at 2:42.30, followed by Paolicelli and DiRaimo.
Sophomore
Taylor Spillman, came from behind to win the 200-meter butterfly at 2:23.72 and also placed second in the 200-meter individual medley.
Other women taking important second place points included
Adrienne Bilello (800 and 400-free);
Luiza Da Silveira (200-back); Lee (50-free); and Nicholson (100 and 200-free).
In total, the Iona women had eight school records in the 25-meter course. Joining Flynn with three new marks, was Spillman with the 200-butterfly and 2:26.01 clocking in the 200-IM; along with Josephs in the 100 and 200-breast and DiRaimo in the 100-breast.
Both teams in the 200-meter individual medley lowered the school mark of 2:04.78, with the quartet of
Rebecca Sembrano, Josephs,
Grace Curry and Lee touching at 2:02.70. Da Silveira, DiRaimo,
Isabelle Pabon and
Lily Devaney were also under the mark at 2:03.02.
The two rivals face off again on Monday, March 29 at the Hynes Pool for a two-session Invitational format event.
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