BALTIMORE - After going six-for-six in Day One action, the Red Foxes came within 2.22 seconds of a complete sweep of the entire two-day H20unds Invitational as they collected 12 more victories on Saturday. Senior Kate Conard (East Setauket, N.Y.) led the Marist women's swimming and diving team to a 3-0 sweep of Loyola, Iona and Saint Peter's with a school record setting performance in the 400-yd IM. Junior Maddie Arciello (Missoula, Mont.) and freshman Bethany Powhida (Delmar, N.Y.) joined Conard as multi-event winners on the final day of competition in Baltimore.
In the first event of Day 2, the 200-yd freestyle relay, the Red Foxes picked up where they left off yesterday with another win. The "A" team of Bridget Curley (Endwell, N.Y.), Emily Miles (Long Valley, N.J.), Bonnie Orr (Fresno, Calif.) and Arciello overtook Iona "A" in the final 50 yards with a 23.63-second leg on its way to a 1:37.73 victory.
Jenell Walsh-Thomas' 400-yd IM school record time of 4:31.23 set in 2010 was shattered in Marist's first individual event of the second day. Seniors Kate Conard and Erica Vitale (Sterling, Conn.) turned in school record breaking times in the race, though Conard left with the win and the number one spot in the record books with a time of 4:25.84. Vitale finished at 4:31.18.
The Red Foxes' earned their ninth win in nine events to open the competition with a victory in the 100-yd butterfly by Emily Miles. The junior completed the race with a time of 57.04 to hold off her classmate Bonnie Orr, who came in second place at 58.34.
A 1-2 finish occurred in the next event, the 200-yd freestyle, as well. Maddie Arciello and Orr went head to head with Arciello earning the 1:53.08 to 1:53.28 win. Freshman Alexandria Koukos (Cheshire, Conn.) took fourth place at 1:57.38 to give Marist three top four finishers.
Once again, the Red Foxes took the top two finishing spots as Powhida and Sarah Wagner (Rockaway, N.J.) went 1-2 with times of 59.25 and 59.38 in the next event, 100-yd backstroke, respectively.
After 11 wins to open the Invitational, the field finally earned a win versus Marist as senior Katie Larkin (Huntington, N.Y.) was out-dueled by Iona's Kerri-Anne Dodenhoff in the 100-yd breaststroke. Larkin finished second with a time of 1:07.61.
Conard got Marist back to its winning ways in the next event, the 1650-yd freestyle as she led a dominate performance by the Red Fox distance squad. Conard finished ahead of three teammates with a time of 17:00.09. Kim Kaller (New Providence, N.J.), Koukos and Shannon Toal (Rye Brook, N.Y.) followed Conard with times of 17:42.27, 17:53.32 and 18:01.36, good for second, third and fourth place respectively.
The team's 14th event of the competition was its 13th win as the "A" team of Conard, Larkin, Miles and Orr defeated Iona's "A" team in the 200-yd medley relay with a time of 1:49.64.
Powhida made it two-for-two on the day in backstroke events as she won the 200-yd race by 2.29 seconds over Loyola's Lizzie McKenna with a time of 2:07.14.
Arciello finished her sprint freestyle action with a clean sweep as she earned win number three of the weekend with a 52.02 result in the 100-yd race. Curley took third place with a 53.67 time.
Larkin nearly pulled off the come-from-behind victory in the 200-yd breaststroke with a time of 2:25.61. The senior came into the final 100 yards 0.35 seconds behind Iona's Mary Ellen Mangione and shaved 0.22 seconds off of that deficit to finish just 0.13 seconds away from the win.
Vitale earned Marist's final individual swimming win of the competition with a one-second win over Miles in the 200-yd butterfly at 2:06.88 to 2:07.88.
The "A" team of Arciello, Miles, Orr and Conard closed the swimming portion of the meet with a 4.86-second win in the 400-yd freestyle relay over Iona "A" at 3:32.50.
In diving action, sophomore Kimberly Tobias (San Jose, Calif.) finished her sweep of the boards with a 6.95-point victory over teammate Chelaine Eliazar (Honolulu, Hawaii) at 227.00 to 220.05.
With that win, Marist took first place finishes in 18 of 20 events at the H20unds Invitational on its way to three team wins; 297-62 over Saint Peter's, 280-90 over Loyola and 279-88 over Iona. The team improves to 6-1 on the season and 5-0 in MAAC action.
The Red Foxes will be off from regular season competition for six weeks before hosting Southern Connecticut State in a home meet on Saturday, Jan. 12.
