Feb. 25, 2011

Results

Buffalo, N.Y. - Another event filled day of swimming and diving has come to a close at the 2011 Atlantic 10 Championships, held at the Flickinger Center in Buffalo, New York. In the women's competition, Fordham remains in second place behind Richmond, but the Rams had another stellar day with two school record and four All-Conference performances.

Richmond extended its lead to 101 points over Fordham, 529-428, with one day remaining. Massachusetts sits in third place with 313 points, followed by La Salle (233.5), St. Bonaventure (228), Duquesne (219.5), Rhode Island (182.5), Saint Louis (163), George Washington (154.5), and Xavier (142).

Day three of competition began with the women's 400 individual medley, as Fordham's Courtney Collyer and Kara Field made the "A" and "B" finals respectively. Natazia Fistrovic almost joined Field in the "B" final, but fell short in a swim off, posting a time of 4:44.95 for 17th place. In the finals, Field finished second in the "B" final (10th overall) in a season-best time of 4:31.10, while Collyer was second overall in the "A" final, posting a school record time of 4:21.04. She broke her own school record mark of 4:21.37, set last year.

Next up was the 100 butterfly, as both Kelly Bunster and Shannon Jones made the "A" final. Bunster would win the event, the first by a Ram in this Championship, posting a season-best time of 56.34 seconds. Jones followed Bunster home in third place with a time of 56.55 seconds.

Brienne Ryan broke her 100 backstroke, not once, but twice on Friday night.

In the 200 freestyle, five Rams would make the finals, including two in the "A" final. Megan McGorry placed third in the "A" final in a time of 1:51.10, while Alana Biagioli was eighth in 1:53.09. The "B" final was won by Fordham's Alexandra Wessel, clocking in at 1:52.46 for ninth overall, while Allie Alessi (1:54.09) and Lara Moseley (1:54.36) finished 15th and 16th overall, respectively.

The Rams did not have a competitor in the 100 breaststroke but did have two "A" finalists in the 100 backstroke in Brienne Ryan and Christina Cosentino. Ryan would place second overall in a school record and NCAA "B" qualifying time of 53.94 seconds, while Cosentino was fourth in 56.35 seconds.

The action then turned to the three-meter diving event, where Fordham once again had all three of its divers in the finals. Andrea Krok was the top scorer in third place, posting a score of 238.20, followed by Brittany Salas in fifth (218.50) and Elizabeth Dorger in sixth (218.05).

The final event of the evening was the 400 medley relay, where Ryan, Collyer, Bunster, and McGorry took home second place in a time of 3:45.21. In the race, Ryan's lead-off time in the backstroke at 53.44 seconds, actually broke her 100 backstroke record set earlier in the evening. Competition at the Championship will conclude on Saturday with trials at 10:30 a.m. and finals at 6:30 p.m.