POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.
- The Marist men's swimming and diving team won their first meet of the young
season with a 125-112 victory over Fordham Thursday night at the McCann
Natatorium. Seeking retribution for last season's loss to the Rams, the Red
Foxes were led by sophomores Nick Spinella (Franklin Square, N.Y.) and Sean Molloy (Slingerlands, N.Y.), who collected four of the team's seven event
victories.
Spinella earned victories in both
the 200-yd individual medley and the 200-yd backstroke. In the IM, he held off
Fordham's Thomas Yi by .29 seconds with a final time of 1:58.99. In his second
event, Spinella again won in a hotly-contested battle. The outcome of the race
came down to a 25-yd. sprint where the sophomore outreached Fordham's Michael
Grimmett-Norris by .14 at 1:56.08.
Molloy turned in two first place
finishes with career high scores in both diving events. His meet began with a
281.47 performance in the 3-meter board. Molloy's previous career-high was
242.10 in last season's MAAC Championship. In the 1-meter he finished with
247.87 points, .60 ahead of his previous high of 247.27. In both boards, Molloy's
teammate freshman Jacob Baker (Shavertown, Pa.) earned second place finishes.
A trio of freshmen swimmers closed
out the group of victorious Red Foxes. Bill Drennen (Collegeville, Pa.), Jason Ruddy (Lake Katrine, N.Y.) and Evan Uy (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii) earned wins in the
1000-yd freestyle, 200-yd butterfly and 200-yd breaststroke events
respectively.
Drennen won a close back and forth race
amongst three swimmers. Marist's Patrick Shea initially held the lead down the
stretch before Drennen closed out with a strong final push to with a time of
9:59.54. Fordham's Andrew Hendrickson finished .19 seconds back in second with
Shea 1.34 out in third.
Ruddy swam to a 1.69 second victory
in the butterfly with a time of 1:55.69, while Uy's strong showing in the
breaststroke helped the Red Foxes clinch the overall team win. With a final
time of 2:14.47, Uy earned his first career win. Combined with a second place
finish by junior Brian Shannon (Baldwin, N.Y.), the Red Foxes earned 13 points
in the second to last event of the duel.
The Red
Foxes will return to action next Saturday, October 29 in a 1 p.m. meet at Rider.
