Photo by Craig Melvin
The women’s swimming and diving team placed second at the 2011 Atlantic 10 Championships in Buffalo, N.Y.
Its combined score of 578 points ensured that the team would finish first or second for the third year in a row. The University of Richmond won the title and the University of Massachusetts placed third with 397.5 points.
The final day of competition opened with a bang in the 200-yard backstroke preliminaries, as Fordham’s Brienne Ryan broke the Atlantic 10, Fordham and ECC pool records in the event with a time of 1:56.11.
Ryan joined teammate Christina Cosentino in the “A” final of the 200-yard backstroke and took gold with a mark of 1:57.01. For her part, Cosentino placed fourth by finishing in 2:02.21. Alexandra Wessel scored for Fordham in the “B” final, placing 10th with a time of 2:04.70.
In the 1,650-yard freestyle, Fordham saw two top-six finishes. Megan McGorry earned a third-place finish by breaking her own school record with a time of 16:43.96. She also set a new 1,000-yard freestyle mark by finishing in 10:07.25. Kara Field joined McGorry in the scoring, taking sixth place in 16:57.31.
When the meet then moved to the 100-yard freestyle event, four Rams found their way into the “B” final. Kelly Bunster led Fordham with an 11th place finish at 52.00, with Alana Biagioli (52.13) and Kellie Lyver (52.16) following her in 12th and 13th place, respectively. Allie Alessi rounded out the scoring with a 16th-place finish in 53.38.
The Rams also were strong in the 200-yard butterfly. Courtney Collyer took gold in the event, defending her title from last year and winning this year’s event in 2:00.19. Shannon Jones joined Collyer in the scoring, winning the “B” final with a time of 2:05.97.
The final women’s event was the 400-yard freestyle relay, in which Biagioli, Bunster, Collyer and Ryan finished second with a time of 3:25.32.
Fordham set nine school records at the championships, while eight swimmers earned First Team or Second Team All-Atlantic 10 honors.
