Broncs taste victory and defeat at tri-meet in Philly

By Paige McAtee

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving team split the weekend as it took on La Salle and Delaware last Saturday during a tri-meet hosted by La Salle.
Both teams were able to seal the deal against La Salle as the men finished with a 169-130 win and the women ended with a 165-130 victory. The Broncs were not so lucky against Delaware as the men fell 180-119, and the women 187-111, respectively.
Freshman Johnny Funk had a great triple-win performance on Saturday, winning the 100-yard backstroke in 52.33, the 200-yard backstroke in 1:52.3, and the 100-yard butterfly in 51.58.
“I was more surprised about my performance than anything,” Funk said. “Training with guys like [freshman] Brian Molloy and [freshman] Kevin Mahana prepared me for the heated competition.”
Junior Brianna Burns and Molloy both won the 200-yard freestyle for the Broncs. Burns won in 1:54.56, and Molloy finished in 1:45.3, beating out fellow teammate senior Brian Brady, who came in second with a time of 1:45.86.
Burns also came in second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.73, just .07 seconds away from the leader, junior Donna Healy from Delaware.  She placed second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 53.2, losing to fellow teammate junior Raquel Riestra who claimed first place in 53.12.
Senior Jennifer Sullivan won the 100-yard backstroke in 57.25, along with Funk winning on the men’s side.
In the women’s 200-yard backstroke, senior Kellyanne Tomasula won in 2:06.89, beating the rest of the field by 3.89 seconds.
Tomasula also won the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:08.77.
Molloy also won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:46.15, finishing strong in the last 100-yards to win by almost three seconds.
For the diving portion of the meet, senior Amanda Burke came in first in the 1-meter with a score of 291.8. Burke also won the 3-meter with a score of 274.3, while junior Aisley Carter was second with a score of 216.25.
“Finishing second on the 3-meter against these teams felt awesome because Delaware and La Salle are not in our conference so it gave us some really good competition,” said Carter.
Senior diver Paul Apostolakis was first in the men’s 1-meter with a score of 322.25, while junior Tom Smallwood was second with 271.4. Apostolakis was also the winner in the 3-meter diving with a score of 276.9.
Last year, both the men’s and women’s teams defeated Delaware and La Salle during a tri-meet at Delaware.
The Broncs have only defeated Delaware 19 of the 62 times they have met, while the women have defeated Delaware only three of the 19 times they have competed against each other.
Against La Salle, the team has won five out of the last seven overall meetings.
“We had a lot of great performances on both the men’s and women’s sides that helped us stay in the meet,” Carter said. “We are all just working on being more consistent.”
Next up for the Broncs is the Bucknell Invitational on Dec. 4 through 6. Rider’s next home meet is on Saturday, Jan. 16 against Loyola (MD) at 1 p.m.
“Our team is ready to go fast and do some damage,” said Funk.