On November 7 and 8, both the men’s and women’s swim teams traveled to New York to take part in the NYU Invitational meet. Over the two days, the Ducks finished in second place, ahead of Drew but behind NYU. Stevens swimmers impressed with multiple top-half finishes and strong performances all around, despite the tough competition.
The first day of the meet was Friday, November 7, and despite being shorter than the second day, it was quite eventful. Stevens women opened the meet with a fifth-place finish in the 200-freestyle relay. Junior Ashley Settle, senior Natalia Brunetti, freshman Samantha Gallo, and senior Adriana Bertolotti combined for a 1:45.15 finish. In the 50 freestyle, sophomore Delaney Klaus turned in a strong sprint performance, finishing seventh overall with a 25.12.
In the women’s 500 freestyle, sophomore Eszter Kiss achieved a fourth-place finish in the 500 freestyle, clocking 5:17.19, which was the Ducks’ top individual result of the session. She was followed closely by teammates sophomore Dora Dvorkin, who placed sixth, and senior Gabby Tyer in seventh. Junior Abby Rosingana rounded out the top eight, as all four Ducks scored in the event’s top half.
For the men, senior Will Stibor got a third-place finish in the 50 freestyle, finishing in 21.48 seconds to post Stevens’ top individual result of the night. Freshman Cooper Moffatt delivered a high finish for the Ducks, placing fourth in the 200 individual medley in 1:58.89. Sophomore Ethan Emerton (2:02.15) and senior Angel Velasquez (2:02.43) placed seventh and eighth, respectively, rounding out an impressive Stevens performance.
The 200-freestyle relay of freshmen Matthew Beaney and Sebastien Nappi and seniors Velasquez and Stibor placed fourth in 1:27.20. While the 400-medley relay team of Emerton, Velasquez, senior Deo Bove, and freshman Niall Easton took second overall in 3:33.25. These two remarkable relays, along with the other results, left Stevens in second place, going into day two.
The second session was from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and within the six-hour window, the Ducks had many impressive performances. Starting with the men’s 100 breaststroke, Velasquez finished in first place with a 57.98, and just .15 seconds behind him was his fellow senior, Lukas Mikulenas, who finished in second. There were four more runner-up finishes in addition to this one: Bove in the 100 butterfly, Emerton in the 200 backstroke, Stibor in the 100 freestyle, and Velasquez in the 200 breaststroke. Alongside the multitude of runners-up, Moffat took third in the mile freestyle in 16:36.74.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Velasquez, Mikulenas, Bove, and Stibor also took second. The 800 (Bove, Stibor, Easton, and Nappi) and 400 (Nappi, Velasquez, Bove, and Stibor) freestyle relay teams each finished fourth, the 800-yard group finishing in 7:15.24 and the 400-yard team in 3:13.11.
In terms of the women, Rosingana registered the lone individual Top-4 finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle, touching in 19:13.91. Sophomore Julia McKinley also finished one spot behind in the 1,650 free, finishing in 19:33.98. The 800-yard freestyle relay team of Kiss, McKinley, Gallo, and Klaus finished fifth, less than three seconds off another top-four finish.
The culmination of all the results over the two days led to both the men’s and women’s teams finishing in second place with 256 and 293 points, respectively. This was a wonderful performance by all the Ducks, and they hope to continue the good form as they make a Garden State trip west on November 14, for a 6 p.m. start with Montclair State.
