RIVERDALE, N.Y.- The Manhattan College men's and women's swimming team will head into the Thanksgiving break on a hot streak after sweeping Baruch College and NJIT in dual meets this past weekend. With the victories, the program moved to within two wins of the exclusive 500-victory plateau.
“It was an excellent end to the first semester dual meet schedule,” Coach Walter Olsewski said. “We knew we needed to bring our “A” game to come out on top and we were able to keep our focus and win the meets.”
Kicking off the action Friday evening, the Jaspers traveled to the ARC Aquatic Center for a head-to-head contest with Baruch College and succeeded in taking both sides of the meter-based contest. For the men's squad (8-6), the matchup proved to be a tight scoring battle with Manhattan edging the Bearcats by a 110-90 final.
Pacing the team in short distance events was sophomore Robert Varieur and freshmen TJ McCarthy and Dennis Daly. Varieur had a strong result in the 100-meter freestyle (55.45), while McCarthy excelled in the 100-meter butterfly (59.81) and 200-meter freestyle events (2:04.80). Improving on last week's effort, Daly finished second in the 200-meter medley with a time of 2:21.73, mere seconds off the school record.
Competing in intermediate and distance competition, newcomer PJ Sweeney had a solid showing in both the 400 (4:26.29) and 800-meter freestyle events (9:43.60).
In the team relays, the combination of Daly and sophomores Mike Scire, Michael Murtha and Mickey Ruddy placed first in the 200-meter freestyle event (1:55.43).
Swimming possible their best meet of the year, the women's side (5-9) came out on top with a 112-88 result. Taking the lead in the third event and never looking back, the Lady Jaspers dominated in both short and long distance events.
Leading the way in the sprints was junior Bridget Latino and newbie Melanie Tam. Latino was stellar in the 100-meter butterfly (1:10.34) and 200-meter freestyle events (2:22.25). Following her lead, Tam recorded some of her best early season times in the 50 (29.99) and 100-meter freestyle competition (1:05.06).
Participating in the 800-meter freestyle, freshman MaryLynn McMahon led the team with a time of 10:48.11.
Wrapping up the weekend, the men's team continued their winning ways Saturday with a 112.5-78.5 victory at NJIT in Newark, N.J.
Behind three consecutive wins from Varieur, last season's MVP, the Jaspers raced out to a big lead and cruised to their third-straight win. The second-year swimmer placed first in the 100 (49.36) and 500-yard freestyle events (5:38.95) and was a member of Manhattan's winning 200-yard freestyle relay team along with McCarthy, Scire and Ruddy (1:33.21).
Adding to the score with impressive efforts of their own were Sweeney, Daly and sophomore Cullen Balcanoff. Sweeney won both the 100-yard butterfly (56.38) and 200-yard freestyle events (1:53.59) while Balcanoff and Daly had strong finishes in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00,01) and 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.21), respectively.
Manhattan will return to the pool on Dec. 3, when they gear up for the 2010 ECAC Open at the Nassau Aquatic Center in Nassau County, N.Y.
