Rider record-setting performances made at Bruno Invite

By Carlos Toro

The swimming and diving team wrapped up its 2016 schedule with a trip to the Bruno Invite, hosted by Brown University, from Dec. 2-4.

The men finished in fourth place out of five teams while the women placed fifth out of six teams in the three day meet.

Junior Zack Molloy said the team performed well at the Bruno Invite.

The women defeated Columbia, but lost to Brown, Princeton, Rutgers and Dartmouth, while the men defeated Dartmouth while being bested by Columbia, Princeton and Brown. Brown won both the men’s and women’s meets.

In the second day of the meet, Freshman Justin Carey won the preliminary 100-meter back with a time of 48.86, beating a Rider record. Later in the same day, he beat his own record in the final with a winning time of 48.67 seconds.

Junior Hannah Bayer staked a 10th place finish in the final (4:38.99) for the 400-meter individual medley. Freshman Casey Wrabley placed 11th in the final (4:40.05). Sophomore Taylor Stalnaker claimed 11th in the 100-meter back finals (57.63) and junior Julianna Runk took 12th in the finals of the 100-meter breaststroke after an 11th place prelim result (1:05.75).

The relay teams had a solid performance in the second day with the men’s 200-meter medley team of Carey, Zack Molloy, senior Matthan-Matthew Martir, and senior Zach Mabin finishing fourth (1:31.29). On the women’s side, Stalnaker, Runk, senior Ariana Palmer, and senior Jacquelynn Parker had a seventh place result in the same event.

In the 800-meter free relay, the men’s team of the Molloy brothers Zack and senior William, senior Sam Cramer, and sophomore Vincent Gibbons placed fifth (6:48.50) while the women’s team of Bayer, Parker, Stalnaker and Wrabley placed ninth.

Zack Molloy had a record-setting performance in the third day of competition by winning the 100-meter freestyle in 43.84 seconds, beating a Rider record established in 2009. Freshman Cole May set a new personal record in the 200-meter butterfly (1:51.63), good for sixth place in the finals of that event.

Mabin took fourth in the preliminaries for the 200-meter breaststroke before finishing in seventh place in the finals (2:04.38). Sophomore Lucas Musselman’s third day of competition ended with a tenth place result in the preliminary and final for the 200-meter backstroke (1:49.21).

Runk and junior Tara Maniace had solid performances in the 200-meter breaststroke, taking 11th (2:25.14) and 14th (2:29.16) in the final, respectively. Sophomore Breanne Hatter placed 13th in the three-meter dive with a score of 211.50.

In the 1650-meter freestyle, three Broncs contributed to the team’s point total. Cramer had a sixth-place finish (15:54.57), sophomore Griffin Hutton ninth (16:12.16), and senior Michael Regan 13th (16:29.52). For the women, freshman Casey Wrabley took 10th (18:08.67).

In the 400-meter free relay, the women’s team of freshman Olivia Iswalt, Palmer, Parker and sophomore Taylor Stalnaker finished 10th (3:34.38). The of sophomore Victoria Evans, Maniace, sophomore Amy Rheel and junior Baileigh Vanderhoof took 12th (3:42.08) in that same event as well.

On the men’s side of the 400-meter free relay event, the group of Gibbons, Martir, William Molloy and Zack Molloy finished sixth (3:03.31) while the team of senior Denny Atkinson, Cramer, senior Harun Filipovic, and junior Maciej Paz took eighth with a time of 3:09.69.

After spending the entire fall season competing in six different dual meets and one multi-school meet on the road, Rider will get its chance to compete at home next month.

The men’s team is also enjoying a very long dual meet win streak which dates all the way back to the 2014 season. The men are also the five-time defending MAAC Champions while the women have placed inside the top three in the MAAC for the past decade as well.

“Having so many away meets has been hard on the team because of all the traveling, but we’re are happy to finish our dual meet season off with two home meets,” Molloy said.

The Broncs will be in the pool on Jan. 13 against Seton Hall. That meet will be held at Rider’s Coppola Pool in the Maurer Center, followed by a road meet at Georgetown on Jan. 16.

Rider will then host conference rival Monmouth at the Coppola Pool on Jan. 24. It is the third dual-meet where Rider is facing off against a MAAC opponent. The men and women defeated Fairfield earlier this season on Oct. 15 and then the men beat Marist on Oct. 29.

These meets are to prepare Rider for the MAAC Championship from Feb. 8-11 held in Buffalo, New York, at Erie Community College, followed by the ECAC Championships, hosted by the University of Pittsburgh, from March 3-5.