Women's Swimming Fends Off Old Westbury in Home Opener

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—With a 1.8 second victory in the final 200-yard freestyle relay, the St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) women's swimming team held off SUNY College at Old Westbury, 53-41, in their home opener at Brooklyn Technical High School.

The Lady Bears (1-0) won eight of 11 events with Tina Wong (Brooklyn, N.Y./HS of Telecommunications Art and Technology), Brianna Minogue (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) and Jillian O'Hara (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) each securing two individual victories.

After dropping the opening 200-yard medley relay, the Lady Bears rattled off six straight events to take a 35-25 lead with four events remaining.

Wong captured the 1000-yard freestyle (15:20.20), followed by Minogue in the 200-yard freestyle (2:32.26) and Collins in the 50-yard freestyle (31.78) winning by .03 seconds. O'Hara then took the 200-yard individual medley in 2:52.93 and Wong victorious again in the 100-yard butterfly (1:19.99), followed by Minogue's .34 second win in the 100-yard freestyle (1:06.41).

But the future Skyline Conference rival Panthers (1-2) roared back into the meet taking the next two events to pull within two points, 40-38. Despite O'Hara's victory in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:29.45), the visitors took second and left the outcome of the meet up to the final 200-yard freestyle relay.

Despite a 31.51 opening leg from Collins, the Panthers pulled ahead after the first exchange, but a 31.11 split from Victoria Benalcazar (Astoria, N.Y./St. John's Prep) helped give the O'Hara nearly a two-second cushion and she handed off to anchor Minogue who sealed the win a 29.88 split that clocked in at 2:02.54, just .44 off the SJC record.

The Lady Bears have two weeks off before returning to the pool, heading north to compete in the SUNY Delhi Invitational on Saturday, November 22.