Feb. 5, 2005
WORCESTER, Mass. - The Fairfield University men's and women's swimming and diving teams dominated Holy Cross, winning by scores of 141-93 and 146-94, respectively. With the win the men's team improves to 3-7 overall while the women finish the regular-season with a record of 8-5.
The Stags started the meet with a bang, winning the first two events, as both the men and women took first-place in the 400-yard medley relay. Fairfield followed up the opening relay with both teams sweeping the 1,000 freestyle as sophomore Brittany Hunter (Mt. Kisco, N.Y.) took the top spot, followed by junior Bridget McKeon (Hamden, Conn.) and junior Kate Roche (Stratford, Conn.) in second and third, respectively. On the men's side, freshman Rob Devine (Norwalk, Conn.) won the event with classmate Sean McGonigle taking second and sophomore Tom Scappaticci placing third.
The men won seven swimming events in total and were led by junior Raul Delgadillo (West Allis, Wisc.) who took first-place in both the 100 breaststroke and the 200 free. Junior Sean Killelea (Suffern, N.Y.) won the 200 IM and took second in the 100 breast while Scappaticci won the 500 free. Freshman Rob Willhoit (West Orange, N.J.) rounded out the top winners for the Stags, taking first in the 200 backstroke while Devine snagged a second-place finish in the 500 free.
The women's team took eight first-place finishes and were led by Hunter and senior Kelly Steele (Chatham, N.J.) with two wins apiece. In addition to her victory in the 1,000 free, Hunter also took the 500 free while Steele won both the 100 and 200 freestyle events. Sophomore Jennifer Masi (North Haven, Conn.) won the 50 free as freshmen Erin Carrather (Westwood, N.J.) and Liz Lawlor (North Wales, Pa.) took the 200 back and 100 breast, respectively.
The Stags swept the diving events as senior Chrissie Mayr (Rockville Center, N.Y.) and junior Rob Penwell (Chatham, N.J.) won on both the one- and three-meter boards. Freshman Katherine Yee (Bethesda, Md.) took second-place on the one-meter and third on the three-meter while Jennifer Silvia (Osterville, Mass.) took second on the three-meter and third on the one-meter board. In the men's three-meter, sophomore Diego Ibarra (Fairview, N.J.) took second while junior Jon Barrett (Caldwell, N.J.) took third and in the one-meter event, Barrett took second and Ibarra took third.
Fairfield begins the championship season on Thurs., Feb. 17 as the team travels to Baltimore, Md., to participate in the MAAC Championships on the Loyola campus.
