Women’s Swimming & Diving Wins First-Ever ECAC Crown, Men’s Team Grabs Third Place
¶¶Òô»ÆƬapp Swimming and Diving wrapped up the first half of the 2018-19 schedule with strong showings at the ECAC Winter Championships. The women’s team won its first-ever ECAC title in program history, while the men’s squad clocked a third-place finish.
The Fairfield women, who are also the reigning MAAC Champions, pulled away from the competition this past weekend with a score of 1824 – nearly 500 points ahead of second-place Wagner. The Stags garnered 17 medals at the meet, including victories in five events. Individually, Maria Nitti ’21 was victorious in the 100-yard freestyle, Sara Ostensen ’21 won gold in the 200-yard butterfly, Colleen Young ’20 beat the field in the 200-yard breaststroke and Shannon Feeley ’22 earned the win in the 400-yard individual medley. The Stags’ fifth gold medal came from the 200-yard freestyle relay team comprised of Samantha D’Alessandro ’22, Emily Holman ’20, Ostensen and Nitti.
Young, Feeley and the relay team all established new Fairfield program records with their winning times.
Fairfield’s men’s team collected four medals en route to a third-place performance. Lukas Stanton ’22 led the effort with a first-place showing on the three-meter dive and a second-place dive off the one-meter board. Patrick Boyle ’22 added a second-place time in the 1650-yard freestyle and earned a bronze medal with a third-place finish in the 400-yard individual medley.
“I was incredibly impressed with our student-athletes this weekend,” said Head Coach Anthony Bruno. “We faced tough competition from many different conferences, and our men and women responded to the challenge; our student-athletes were focused and looking to do something special.”
At the end of the weekend’s action, Bruno was named the Women’s Swimming Coach of the Meet. Diving Coach Dan Vener was named Men’s Diving Coach of the Meet and Stanton was tabbed as Men’s Diver of the Meet.
“I am humbled to have been selected by my peers as the Women’s Coach of the Meet,” Bruno noted. “It is truly a shared award, and I could not do what I do without the help of Coach Amy and especially Coach Frisk on a day-to-day basis. Coach Dan earning Men’s Diving Coach of the Meet is well-deserved and very exciting for our program.”
Fairfield Swimming and Diving is back in the pool on Friday, Jan. 4 for the first of six remaining meets leading up to the 2019 MAAC Championships. The conference-wide meet will be held at Eric Community College in Buffalo, N.Y. from Feb. 13-16.
