by The Cowl Editor on November 7, 2019
Friar Sports
By Marc DeMartis ’21
Sports Staff
This weekend the Providence College Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Teams had two meets against two different opponents. The first was on Friday against Iona College. Unfortunately, the Friars did not come away with the win, but it was a hard-fought meet.
The team seemed to lack energy in the first half, losing the majority of their events. However, the Friars came back in the second half looking alive and shifting the momentum in their favor.
Andrew Ferrell ’21 said, “We were deflated in the first half of the meet, which allowed them to take advantage and keep their momentum going. But we picked up the energy in the second half of the meet and although we performed much better in the second half, it doesn’t matter at the end of the day since we still lost.”
The Friars’ loss in their meet against Iona could have been due to the number of swimmers missing due to injury or sickness. Parker Cramer ’21 explained, “We’ve had a lot of injuries and illnesses plaguing our team this past week, which did not help us when it came to training for these meets. We weren’t as prepared as we could’ve been against Iona but we made those adjustments against Fairfield and it made it a much better meet.”
The Friars woke up Saturday morning ready to take on Fairfield University. Determined to avoid two consecutive losses, the team rose to the occasion, and the fans were extremely engaged in each and every event because of how close it was the entire time.
The men’s team lost 154-137, but the women’s team saved the day on their end, winning 151-149. It was an exhilarating meet to say the least; the final event decided whether or not the meet would end in a loss or split for the Friars.
Jamie Eigner ’21 described the meet as “definitely one of our most competitive and exhilarating meets that we’ve had considering it came down to the last relay.” Luckily, the women’s team came up clutch and got the job done to avoid back-to-back losses this weekend.
Despite the men’s team losing the majority of their events, they set a new school record for the 800 meter freestyle relay with a time of 8:01.19.
Eigner also mentioned, “All of our guys were there for each other the entire meet and I think we all did great. Looking ahead, we look forward to what’s to come in the future and are ready to remain positive and train hard every day for the rest of the season.”
With newcomers like Taylor Loud ’23 on the women’s team, the Friars seem to be in good hands going forward. Loud impressed after placing first in the 100 meter freestyle event against both Iona and Fairfield.
The women’s swim and dive team participated in a tri-meet this Wednesday, November 6 against the University of Rhode Island and Sacred Heart University at 6 p.m.