FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Fairfield University Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving opened their season today at the inaugural Fairfield Invitational at the RecPlex Pool taking on Manhattan College, the University of Bridgeport, and Southern Connecticut State University.   After revealing the first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship banner in program history, the women continued where they left off from last season placing first at the invite with a total score of 672.  The men placed fourth with a score of 224. 
 
Diving started the day as freshman Erin Wind took first place in both the 1 Meter diving and the 3 Meter diving scoring 214.90 and 218.80 respectively.  Freshman Lukas Stanton also won in the 3 Meter diving with a score of 206.60 and finished second in the 1 Meter diving (183.95).
 
Women's swimming won their first event of the day in the 200 SC Meter Medley Relay as Kelly Cordes, Colleen Young, Morgan Hansen, and Maria Nitti finished with a time of 2:02.07. Alzbeta Andrikova, Victoria Krivitsky, Sarah Scelsa, and Samantha D'Alessandro also finished second in the same event. Sara Ostensen placed first in the 200 SC Meter Butterfly (2:24.51) and was the runner up in the 200 SC Meter Freestyle (2:10.85) and the 400 SC Meter Freestyle (4:33.08).  Kelly Cordes won the 100 SC Meter Backstroke (1:08.97) and placed fifth in the 100 SC Meter Freestyle (1:01.30). Maria Nitti picked up a win in the 50 SC Meter Freestyle (27.40) while Samantha D'Alessandro finished second.  Rachel Landry also won the 200 SC Meter Backstroke with a time of 2:31.14. Colleen Young (2:43.91) and Emily Vlass (2:47.47) went one-two in the 200 SC Meter Breaststroke.  
 
Sarah Herbold finished second in the 100 SC Meter Freestyle (1:00.33) and fourth in both the 200 SC Meter Freestyle and the 100 SC Meter Butterfly.  Morgan Hansen also finished in second place in the 100 SC Meter Butterfly (1:07.30) and fourth in the 200 SC Meter Butterfly.  Haleigh McLaughlin finished second in the 800 SC Meter Freestyle (9:58.15) as well.  Colleen Young, Emily Vlass, Alzbeta Andrikova, and Victoria Krivitsky place two through five in the 100 Meter Breaststroke.  Freshman Shannon Feeley also placed second in the 200 SC Meter IM. 
 
In the 400 SC Meter Freestyle Relay, Herbold, Nitti, Cordes, and Ostensen finished second while Oreoluwa Cherebin, Hansen, Madelynn Mowad, and Feeley finished third. 
 
On the men's side, Patrick Boyle finished in third place in the 800 SC Meter Freestyle with a time of 8:40.16 and fourth place in the 400 SC Meter Freestyle.  Freshman Thomas Willemse finished second in the 100 SC Meter Backstroke (1:02.30) while Timothy Cusack-McPartlin finished fourth.  Willemse also finished second in the SC Meter Backstroke with a time of 2:16.60.  In the 200 SC Meter Medley Relay, Willemse, Peter Sloan, Jack Benavides, and Harrison McGovern finished in fourth place.  Harrison McGovern also finished fourth in the 100 SC Meter Breaststroke. 
 
"I am really proud of the team today" said Head Coach Anthony Bruno.  "It was great to celebrate the accomplishments from last year of the men and women at home, with many parents and friends of the program. We saw a lot of strong swims and dives out of the group today. The teams are focused on the challenges ahead. We now turn our attention to the Boston College invite."
 
The Stags will be back in action on Friday, October 5 and Saturday, October 6 as they travel to Boston College for the New England Catholic Invitational.