On Saturday afternoon in New York, the Villanova swimming and diving team split their meet with the Syracuse Orange. The women’s team posted a 133-100 victory over the Orange, while recording nine first place finishes. Unfortunately, the men’s team suffered a 142-80 defeat at the hands of the Orange, but recorded a strong showing with three first place finishes.

The men’s team was lead by junior captain David Drsydale, who captured a first place finish in the 100 breast stroke with a time of 1:00.19. In addition, the team received a strong second place finish in the 200 medley with Drsydale, senior captain James Harrell, Mike Kernickey and Zach Rambo posting a time of 1:39:80. The men’s swim team also received a great performance in 200 free relay, in which Harell, Kernicky, Rambo and Matt McLaughlin combined for a first place time of 1:27.42.

Although the team failed to secure a victory, Drsydale and others were pleased with the team’s overall performance. Drysdale stated, “We had a good meet and very strong performances from all of the men that gave us much confidence heading up to our championship meets.”

As the team prepares from the Big East invitationals, the team hopes to continue to maintain and build upon their fast swimming times as they attempt to earn top finishes at the invitational.

Saturday’s victory over Syracuse propelled the women’s swimming and diving team’s record to 4-3 and marked their final conference meet before the team’s Big East invitationals.

The women started the meet with an impressive showing, sweeping the meet’s first four events. The women’s 200 medley team of Annie Kelly, Brie von Rosendahl, Kiersten Rosenberg and Jesse Radtke recorded the first of the team’s nine first place finishes with a time of 1:49:36.

The team’s solid and sound performance was best exemplified when the team captured two one-two finishes with freshman Mariee Morden winning the 100 freestyle (52.69) with Radtke placing second (53.39) and Somerville winning the 500 freestyle (5:05.24) with Kaitlynn Osborn swimming to a second place finish (5:06.50).

The women’s dive team also enjoyed an impressive performance with freshman Lindsay Davis capturing first place in both the one meter (237.82) and three meter (233.55), while teammate Danielle Trinker placed second in these events. Both teams will travel to New Brunswick, N.J. next Saturday for the Big East Last Chance invite where they hope to build upon their strong performances from their last meet against Syracuse.