This article originally appeared in The Fordham Ram in August 2019.
The 2018-19 season saw several scintillating achievements for Fordham’s swimming and diving team.
On the women’s side, the team pulled in a third-place finish at the Atlantic 10 Championship in February in Geneva, Ohio. Multiple school records were broken, including the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle. The star of the swim team was senior Tara Brunner, who had a hand in breaking three of those Fordham swimming records. However, Fordham’s top performers last season weren’t necessarily upperclassmen.
Sophomore Caitlin McNary made first-team Atlantic 10 with her performance in the 500 freestyle, and she returns for her junior year this season. Then-junior Theresa Mullen returns after being a part of three all-Atlantic 10 relays.
Over on the diving side, the return of one standout performer should give the team hope for another excellent season.
Current senior Molly Dunn competed at the NCAA Zone Diving Competition on March 12 in Annapolis, Md. Dunn qualified for this tournament after a fourth-place finish in the one-meter dive at the conference championship the month before. The North Attleboro, Mass. native will look to add to her already-impressive resume in 2019-20.
On the men’s side, the team will look to rebound from an up-and-down campaign. Freshman recruits such as Nicholas Chao, Evan Fenska, Wade Meaders, Luka Mikadze, Ethan Murray, Nicolas Trichery and Kavin Weerasinghe will look to invigorate the program with new life and improved results. The team stands to improve after finishing last out of eight teams at February’s Atlantic 10 Championships. However, not all was lost last season; the team showed its potential by surging to blowout victories over Fairfield and Manhattan, which were followed by a close victory over local rival Iona.
The men’s team did lose several key pieces to graduation, such as captain Travis Monahan. However, many of the team’s most exciting athletes from last year, including seniors Christopher Sleutjes and Greg Lombana, juniors Scott Stern and Danny McGowan and sophomore A.J. Frakes, among others, are returning for the coming season. That return rate should lead to a marked improvement starting this fall for head coach Steve Potsklan and his team.
Fordham Swimming and Diving saw some great performances last season, particularly on the women’s side. This season, the task will be to match, if not exceed, those historic performances and improve on what was an excellent 2018-19 season.
This team, on both the men’s and women’s sides, has the pieces to get it done.