POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - In their first competitive meet in six weeks, the Marist men's swimming and diving team earned a commanding win over non-conference foe Southern Connecticut State on Saturday afternoon at the McCann Natatorium. The 168-118 Red Fox victory came courtesy of 13 event wins, including multiple victories by sophomores Sean Sullivan (Huntington, N.J.), Jason Ruddy (Lake Katrine, N.Y.) and freshman Caleb Camp (Chapel Hill, N.C.).
In his first competitive meet with the Red Foxes following a transfer in from Miami University of Ohio, Sullivan had a strong debut with two individual and a third relay win. The sophomore's day began as part of the victorious 200-yd medley relay team that won with a time of 1:39.47. His classmates, Dylan Cummings (Midland Park, N.J.), John Spitzer (Fairport, N.Y.) and Ruddy held off the Marist "B" team. Individually, Sullivan earned a 14.34-second victory in the 1650-yd free at 16:41.35 and 3.76-second win in the 400-yd IM at 4:15.02.
Ruddy went two-for-two in his pair of individual events on the afternoon with a 3.31-second win in the 100-yd breaststroke and a 2.33-second victory in the 500-yd freestyle.
Marist's third dual victor was Camp, who swept the backstroke events with a 55.88 time in the 100-yd discipline and a 1:59.59 result in the 200-yd race.
Five more Red Foxes earn wins in the meet, including a sweep of the diving events. Senior Daniel Collins (Brooklyn, N.Y.) was the first victor as he came from behind to win a hotly-contest 200-yd butterfly race with a closing 50 time of 30.93 in the eventual 0.15-second win with an overall time of 2:00.85. Junior Nick Spinella (Franklin Square, N.Y.) claimed the 50-yd freestyle race with a time of 22.18. The third individual win came from newcomer Nick Vandermolen (Brielle, N.J.), who also was competing in his first meet with Marist. The transfer from the University of Delaware cruised to a 2.70-second victory in the 200-yd breaststroke at 2:21.13; he staked himself to an initial lead of 4.47 seconds at the 100-yd mark.
In diving action, junior Sean Molloy (Slingerlands, N.Y.) and freshman Josh Dodway (Niskayuna, N.Y.) shared top billing as Molloy won the 3-meter board with a 285.90-point performance, while Dodway was victorious in the 1-meter at 281.77. In two close events, the second place finisher in each came in behind the winner by less than 8.65 points.
The Red Foxes (6-2, 5-1 MAAC) will be back in action next weekend with a road meet at Boston College. The events of January 19 are slated to begin at 1 p.m.
