SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - In their closest competition of the year, the Marist women's swimming and diving team (9-1, 6-0 MAAC) earned a 157.5-142.5 victory over Seton Hall (7-1) on the road on Saturday afternoon. The Red Foxes were led by multiple victories from junior Maddie Arciello (Missoula, Mont.) and sophomore Kimberly Tobias (San Jose, Calif.), who combined for four of Marist's nine wins versus the Pirates.
Arciello led Marist's effort in swimming events as she swept the sprint freestyle races. In the 50-yd race, the junior swam to a 0.47-second victory at 24.68, while she nearly tripled her margin of victory in the 100-yd freestyle with a 1.30-second win at 53.70.
On the other end of the pool, Tobias equaled Arciello's production with two wins of her own in diving events. The sophomore's day began with a 261.00-point showing on the 1-meter board; 23.92 points clear of second place. She capped her day with 267.45 points in the 3-meter to hold off teammate Chelaine Eliazar (Honolulu, Hawaii). This 1-2 showing by Red Foxes was augmented by a fourth place finish by freshman Renata Diotalevi (Madison,Conn.) to give the visitors 15 important points in their late meet comeback.
Seniors Kate Conard (East Setauket, N.Y.), Erica Vitale (Sterling, Conn.) and Katie Larkin (Huntington, N.Y.) continued Marist's comeback in the next event, the 200-yd IM, with a 1-2-3 finish. Conard earned the victory with a final time of 2:11.28. Vitale completed the event at 2:13.01, while Larkin came in at 2:14.57.
Earlier in the meet both Vitale and Larkin came out on top of their own events as Vitale won the 200-yd butterfly with a time of 2:08.65 and Larkin the 200-yd breaststroke at 2:27.75.
Freshman Bethany Powhida (Delmar, N.Y.) was the sixth Red Fox to earn an individual win versus Seton Hall as she won the 200-yd backstroke with a final time of 2:07.64, 1.89-seconds clear of the field.
After collecting 15 points from the 3-meter board and 16 from the 200-yd IM race, the outcome of the meet would come down to the final event, the 400-yd freestyle relay. There the "A" team of Bridget Curley (Endwell, N.Y.), Emily Miles (Long Valley, N.J.), Bonnie Orr (Fresno, Calif.) and Powhida would hold off Seton Hall "A" with a 3:38.83 time. Of note, Miles put 2.09 seconds between the Red Foxes and Pirates with a third leg of 55.02 versus 57.11 for her opponent.
The Red Foxes will close out their regular season next Saturday, Feb. 2 with a home meet versus Binghamton. Following a Senior Day ceremony for the graduating class of 2013, the meet is slated to begin at 1:00 p.m.
