Nov. 19, 2011

Results

Lewisburg, Pa. - The Fordham swimming & diving teams continued their march up the standings at the three-day Bucknell Invitational on Saturday in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Fordham women remain in second place, but have closed the gap to just 50.5 points, while the men's team is now in sole possession of fourth place, as they grabbed a 31-point lead over Georgetown.

In the women's competition, Bucknell still leads with 823 points, followed by Fordham (772.5), Delaware (697.5), Colgate (693.5), Georgetown (616.5), and La Salle (615). On the men's side, Bucknell remains in the top spot with 1149.5 points, followed by La Salle (792), Delaware (739.5), Fordham (664), Georgetown (633), Colgate (360), and Susquehanna (17).

A total of 15 events were held on day two (seven women, eight men), and began with women's 200 medley relay, where Fordham's team of Brienne Ryan, Courtney Collyer, Kelly Bunster, and Alana Biagioli placed third in a season-best time of 1:46.60. In the men's race, Fordham's group of Thomas Yi, Sean McManus, Shintaro Noguchi, and Devon Morris finished fourth in season-best time of 1:34.78.

The next event was the women's 400 individual medley, where Fordham had three swimmers in the finals. The "A" final saw Collyer take second in a season-best time of 4:24.49, while in the "B" final, Kara Field was 13th overall (4:38.25) and Frances Warren was 16th (4:43.51).

In the men's 400 individual medley, five Rams made the finals, led by Zach Jacobsen, who finished third in the "A" final with a season-best time of 4:05.41. Michael Grimmett-Norris was also in the "A" final, taking eighth in 4:15.66. Kevin Kosciuk won the "B" final to take ninth overall in 4:08.97 with Thomas Yi placing 11th in 4:10.16. Brandon Strong rounded out the Fordham finalists in 23rd place (4:22.37).

The women's 100 butterfly again put Collyer in the spotlight, as she led a group of five finalists by winning the "A" final in a season-best time of 56.59 seconds. Right behind her in the "A" final was Ryan in third place (56.78) and Bunster in eighth (58.68). Shannon Jones took 13th overall in the "B" final (58.78), while Aurelia O'Keefe was 23rd overall in the "C" final (59.80).

In the men's version of the 100 butterfly, four Rams were in the finals, led by Noguchi and Patrick Militti in the "A" final. Noguchi placed second in a season-best time of 49.96 seconds, while Militti was fifth (51.29). Morris ended up in 10th place in the "B" final (51.78) with Chris Schneck placing 20th in the "C" final (52.60).

The next event was the women's 200 freestyle, where five Rams made the finals, including four in the "A" final. Biagioli was the top finisher, taking third in 1:55.10, followed by Field in fourth (1:55.18), Ariana Peschke in seventh (1:56.26), and Alexandra Wessel in eighth (1:56.33). Kellie Lyver was the last member of the finalist group taking tenth overall in the "B" final (1:55.48).

In the men's 200 freestyle, only Nicholas Belfanti made the final, as he placed fourth in the "A" final in his best time of the year, 1:43.64.

Next was the 100 breaststroke where six swimmers made the finals. On the women's side, Savannah Coe (1:09.77) and Victoria McGovern (1:11.21) made the "C" final, finishing in 18th and 20th place respectively. In the men's competition, McManus was seventh in the "A" final in a season-best time of 59.65 seconds, while Joe Hines took 13th overall in the "B" final (1:00.09). Ben Dwyer won the "C" final for 17th place (1:00.80) with Pat Mulligan in 22nd (1:02.56).

The final individual event was the 100 backstroke, which saw nine Rams make the finals. In the women's competition, Ryan posted an NCAA "B" qualifying time of 54.76 seconds to win the "A" final, while Peschke place fifth in 58.44 seconds. Spencer Chappell was 11th overall in the "B" final (59.39) with Maureen McKenna (19th - 1:00.36) and Jordan Tomimatsu (18th - 1:00.31) rounding out the finalist in the "C" race.

On the men's side, Yi won the "B" final of the 100 backstroke in a season-best time of 51.95 seconds, with Morris (53.51) and Grimmett-Norris (54.49) taking 13th and 14th, respectively. Will Thomann was the last finalist, taking 18th in the "C" final (53.84).

The last swimming event was the 800 freestyle relay, where the Fordham women's team of Collyer, Biagioli, Field and Ryan won the event in 7:37.12, while the men's team of Militti, Belfanti, Jacobsen, and Noguchi took second in 6:55.46.

The last overall event was the men's three-dive, which was Fordham's Kevin Wong place seventh with a score of 183.45.

Day three of the Bucknell Invitational begins on Sunday morning with preliminary action.