LEWISBURG, PA - Sparked by a pair of strong relay efforts, three final swims and four consolation efforts, the Iona University Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving Team jumped up in the final standings at the final day of competition at the 2026 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Open Championships held at the Kinney Natatorium at Bucknell University.
The Iona women leapfrogged MAAC rival Fairfield in the final event – the200-yard Butterfly – to take a 217.5-217.0 in a fight for top six position. The Iona Women's quartet of
Mary Grace Waring (53.30),
Kate Kennedy (53.54),
Caitlin Hopkins (53.46) and
Victoria Mordaunt (52.79) but together a 3:33.09 time and claimed fourth as the Stags were disqualified on a take-off violation. The relay points gave the Iona women fifth place with 247.5-points.
The Women's 200-yard butterfly saw Iona take the lead for the first time in the three-day meet as freshmen
Marissa Hengesbach and
Maddie Lauria placed sixth and fourteenth with respective times of 2:08.48 and 2;13.58 to set up the final relay.
Also scoring individually for the Iona women were sophomore
Hailey Baker and who placed tenth in the 200-yard Breaststroke at 2:24.35 and freshmen Francesca Field in placed fourteenth at 2:27.70.
On the Men's side the quartet of
Dylan Malave (47.74);
Colin Martin (49.70); Nicola re (48.13) and
Harry Summers (48.37) took tenth in the event at 3:13.94 to jump Leigh University 79 to 77.5-points.
The US Naval Academy took both the women's and men's team titles in the 40-event, three-day meet in Lewisburg, PA.
Individually on Sunday, senior co-captain,
Katherine Sarnes, swimming her final race for the maroon and gold, alongside her sister, sophomore
Mollie Sarnes, took fifth in the 1,650-Freestle at 18:00.27, with Mollie eighth at 18:22.51.
"Those two races relay had our team excited and the points were huge," commented Coach
Nick Cavataro.
The other big effort came from freshmen Mordaunt, who in a mid-day time trial, lowered her own school record in the 100-yard individual Medley by. 67 to 57.32 and joins Sophomore
Raegan O'Brien as a qualifier for the March 12-14 CSCAA National Invitational Championship in Ocala, Florida, along with 12 men.
"To have all 14 women and 5 men score in either individual or relay events at this level meet with the strong competition the likes of Navy, Bucknell, Penn, Loyola and Columbia among others, is really promising for the team," commented Cavataro.
The NIC in Ocala Is the final stop on the 25-26 season for the Gaels on March 12-14 in Ocala, Florida.
