Bronx, N.Y. – (February 3, 2024) – It was a historic Senior Day for the Fordham swimming & diving team on Saturday afternoon, as the Rams sent off their seniors and graduate students with their first-ever home dual meet sweep of the Massachusetts Minutemen at the Col. Francis B. Messmore Aquatic Center.
The Fordham women improved to 8-0 in dual meet action this season with a 182.5-117.5 win over UMass, while the men edged the Minutemen, 160-132, to improve to 7-1 on the year.
The meet began and ended with Fordham sweeps in the relay events. The first relay was the 200 medley relay, where
Jane Brown,
Emma Shaughnessy,
Jessica Zebrowski, and
Manon Compagner won in a time of 1:43.92, while the men's team of
Christian Taylor,
Noah Althoff,
Guy Gropper, and
Alexander Shah grabbed first in 1:32.19.
The last relay was the 400 freestyle relay, where Brown, Zebrowski,
Zoei Howard, and Compagner took the top spot in 3:30.08, which was followed by the men's group of Taylor,
Alex Wilhelm, Shah and Gropper winning in 3:03.12.
Individually, Fordham earned 10 individual women's events wins from nine different performers. The lone Ram to win twice on Saturday was
Ainhoa Martin, who had the top time in the 200 breaststroke (2:15.12) and 200 individual medley (2:03.68).
Other winners included
Ellen Brooks in the 1000 freestyle (10:42.50), Brown in the 100 backstroke (56.76), Shaughnessy in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.89), Zebrowski in the 100 freestyle (52.43),
Leire Martin in the 200 backstroke (2:02.13),
Alison Lin in the 500 freestyle (5:08.67), Compagner in the 100 butterfly (55.63), and
Mya Bokerman in the three-meter dive (281.70).
For the men, Fordham grabbed eight first place finishes from six different swimmers. Gropper and Wilhelm captured two event wins each with Gropper taking the 50 freestyle (20.58) and 100 butterfly (48.99), while Wilhelm won the 100 (46.29) and 200 (1:42.00) freestyle events.
Additional winners on Saturday included Taylor in the 100 backstroke (50.48),
Daniel Langlois in the 200 breaststroke (2:08.23),
Wojciech Dutkowiak in the 500 freestyle (4:44.45), and Althoff in the 200 individual medley (1:54.38).
The Rams wrap up the regular season on Wednesday, February 7
th, when they host Wagner at 5:00 PM at the Messmore Aquatic Center.
