Women's Swimming Concludes Season With Triumph Over HVIAC Foe New Rochelle
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – Powered by a pair of individual victories from sophomore Morgan Summers (Bellerose, N.Y./St. Mary's), the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's swimming team concluded their 2013-14 campaign with a 102-98 victory over Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HVIAC) foe The College of New Rochelle in a dual meet on Wednesday night at the CNR Wellness Center.
St. Joseph's (3-6, 1-1 HVIAC) concludes their season with a win for the third consecutive year, while New Rochelle (2-8, 0-2 HVIAC) finishes their season with consecutive losses in dual meets.
The Lady Bears set the tone early, earning a victory in the opening event of the night, the 200-yard medley relay. The quartet of Julia Dineen (Brooklyn, N.Y./St. Saviour), Haley Betancourt (New York, N.Y./St. Vincent Ferrer), Jaclyn Montana (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bay Ridge Prep) and Victoria Benalcazar (Astoria, N.Y./St. John's Prep) posted a time of 2:29.49 to earn a nearly three second triumph, giving St. Joseph's an early 11-6 lead.
Tina Wong (Brooklyn, N.Y./HS of Telecommunications Art and Technology) took her usual spot in the 1000-yard freestyle in event two and delivered a time of 15:01.87 to finish 1:22 ahead of Betancourt to put the Lady Bears up 24-11 after two events.
The Blue Angels took the next two events, the 200-yard freestyle and 50-yard freestyle, to cut the St. Joseph's lead to 38-35 after four events.
Summers, recently named to the HVIAC All-Conference Team, would step up for the Lady Bears in the fifth event, the 200-yard individual medley, picking up a five-second victory with a time of 2:43.56 as St. Joseph's built their lead back up to 47-42.
New Rochelle would win the next two events and take a brief lead at 64-62 after seven events, but the Lady Bears were able to stay within striking distance with second place finishes by Wong and Jillian O'Hara (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) in the 100-yard butterfly (1:18.82) and 100-yard freestyle (1:12.94), respectively.
Realizing the magnitude of the situation Summers would once again shine for St. Joseph's, taking home first place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:15.28 to finish four seconds ahead of Dineen.
The next event saw Jaclyn Kennedy (Breezy Point, N.Y./Fontbonne Hall) post a first place finish in the 500-yard freestyle (7:35.41) with Betancourt placing second (7:49.31) to put the Lady Bears up for good at 91-73 after nine events and the deficit proved too much to overcome for the Blue Angels.