BALTIMORE - After a dominate opening session of competition, the Marist women's swimming and diving team holds advantages of 68 points or more against all three of their opponents at the H20unds Invitational. Senior Kate Conard (East Setauket, N.Y.) and junior Maddie Arciello (Missoula, Mont.) swam to in-season personal bests to lead a stellar showing by the Red Foxes, who won all six the events on Friday.
Conard was Marist first individual winner as she swam to victory in the 500-yd freestyle with a time of 4:57.56. The senior led a quartet of Red Foxes who finished 1-2-3-4 in the event. Bonnie Orr (Fresno, Calif.), Bethany Powhida (Delmar, N.Y.) and Alexandria Koukos (Cheshire, Conn.) finished with times of 5:05.69, 5:06.68 and 5:10.17, respectively.
Senior Erica Vitale (Sterling, Conn.) was the next victorious Red Fox as she held off a late charge by teammate Emily Miles (Long Valley, N.J.) in the 200-yd IM. Vitale registered a winning time of 2:09.33 ahead of Miles' 2:09.84 mark. Senior Katie Larkin (Huntington, N.J.) was the third Red Fox to finish in the top five as she timed in at 2:12.74, good for fifth place.
Once again, Marist went 1-2, as Arciello defeated Bridget Curley (Endwell, N.Y.) in the 50-yd freestyle race with a time of 23.79. The freshman followed up close behind at 24.37. Arciello's winning mark was just 0.08 seconds away from Marist's all-time record that she set as a sophomore last season.
In the final individual event of Session One, sophomore Kimberly Tobias (San Jose, Calif.) won the 1-meter diving board with a score of 245.70, 26.75 points clear of second place. Renata Diotalevi (Madison, Conn.), Chelaine Eliazar (Honolulu, Hawaii) and Lauren Weiner (Feeding Hills, Mass.) finished 3-4-5 in a strong showing for the Red Fox diving squad.
Marist's relay teams swam to 1-2 finishes in both the 400-yd medley and 800-yd freestyle races. The "A" squad of Conard, Larkin, Miles and Arciello took first in the medley relay with a time of 3:53.92. In 800-yd relay action, Conard and Arciello teamed up Powhida and Orr to earn a 12.07-second win with a time of 7:41.59.
The Red Foxes will complete the H20unds Invitational on Saturday with the final two sessions; competition will be held in the morning and in the mid-afternoon.
Day 1 Scores: Marist 89 - Iona 21, Marist 89 - Loyola 21, Marist 93 - Saint Peter's 13
