Women’s Swimming & Diving Finishes Third at A-10 Championship

Geneva, Ohio – (February 23, 2019) – The 2019 Atlantic 10 Swimming & Diving Championship has come to a close at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio, and the Fordham women's swimming & diving held on for a third place finish out of 11 teams. Duquesne won its second consecutive women's championship with 580.5 points, followed by George Washington in second with 562. Fordham outlasted Richmond for third place with 507.5 points to the Spiders' 505. The final day of events started with the 1650 freestyle, where Fordham had two swimmers score points. Bayley Frierson took fifth overall in a season-best time of 16:53.52, while Kate Magill scored 11th overall in 17:12.50. Next was the 200 backstroke, where the Rams again had two finalist score. Paulina Watson just missed the podium as she came in fourth place in a season-best time of 1:59.45, while Cat Alabanza took 11th overall in 2:03.00.

Paulina Watson

A trio of Rams found their way into the finals of the 100 freestyle event. Caitlin McNary started by finished 11th overall as a part of the "B" final in 51.31 seconds. Then in the "A" final, Tara Brunner captured her third individual silver medal with a school record time of 49.74 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 50.24 seconds by Chandler Lulley in 2016. Theresa Mullen also scored in the "A" final, taking seventh at 51.19 seconds. In the 200 breaststroke, Milly Furneaux won the "B" final to take ninth overall in a season-best mark of 2:19.14. The final individual swimming event was the 200 butterfly, where Jacqueline Dominger and Hannah McGee made the finals. Dominger was eighth in the "A" final at 2:03.92 with McGee taking 10th overall as a part of the "B" final in 2:03.77. The last individual event was the women's three-meter dive, as both Molly Dunn and Natalie Ortof scored in the "B" final. Dunn was 10th overall with a score of 260.20, while Ortof was 14th at 227.25. With just half a point separating Fordham and Richmond for third place, the final event of the championship would decide the team bronze. The Rams came through with a silver medal and school record performance to outlast the Spiders, as Brunner, Michelle Martin, McNary, and Mullen, recorded a time of 3:22.18, breaking the school mark of 3:22.67 from last year.