BALTIMORE - The Marist men's swimming and diving team picked up a pair of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference wins over Iona (249-108) and Saint Peter's (276-68), but were nipped by host Loyola, 184-182, at the H2ounds Invitational on Dec. 5. The meet came down to the final relay, as the Red Foxes 'A' 400-yard freestyle relay squad came in first, but Loyola placed second and fourth to pick up the narrow win. Marist is now 4-3 on the season including 4-1 in the MAAC.
Marist's 200 'A' relay team of freshmen Daniel Knoll, Gregory Violette, Michael Valceanu and junior Ryan Murphy clocked in at 1:25.41 to begin the second session with the win. Individually, Knoll won the 100-yard freestyle in 46.16 seconds while Murphy placed first in the 1,650-yard event to conclude the second session with a regular season best time of 15:50.15.
Murphy also spearheaded a 1-2 finish at 200 yards with a time of 1:41.71. Freshman Miguel Madeira followed, completing the event in 1:42.95. There was another top two Marist finish in the 200-yard butterfly, as junior Mason Cassel (1:54.58) and freshman Miguel Basalo (1:56.11) led the pack.
On the 1-meter diving board, senior Josh Dodway and sophomore Peter Gallino repeated their feat from yesterday with the top two scores. Dodway racked up 296.33 points while Gallino put up 244.05 points.
The Red Foxes will begin the 2016 portion of their regular season schedule at Southern Connecticut State in a 1 p.m. dual meet Jan. 9. Marist will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico for its winter training trip from Dec. 27-Jan.2.
