The Marist Men’s and Women’s Swim and Dive teams are poised to make waves in the MAAC this season. The men’s team is coming off a triumphant 2023 championship win—their thirteenth in Marist history and first since 2008—while the women’s team looks to build on a strong third-place finish. Both teams have opened the 2024-25 season with impressive results, with the men starting 5-0 and the women showing resilience with a promising 3-2 start.
In collegiate swim and dive, there are three types of meets: dual meets, invitationals and championship meets. The only meet that matters is the championship meet—every MAAC team competes regardless of record. Invitationals are purely for show, and dual meets can be used to gauge a team’s performance relative to the competition.
Last season, Marist Men’s Swim and Dive felt confident going into the invitationals. The consistently strong swimming of graduate student Ethan McCormac and the emergence of now sophomore standouts Adam Zaremba, Oscar Bjering and Dylan Magda had the team poised to be a top-three finish in the conference meet.
An interesting caveat is that the Men’s Swim and Dive team competed without a diver for the entire season. Junior diver Ethan Gibbs was academically ineligible for the 2023-24 season, leaving a lot of points on the table for the Red Foxes. Marist impressively won meets against MAAC opponents while surrendering diving events to their competitors.
Going into the MAAC Championship meet, head coach Anthony Randall was confident in having at least one top eight finisher and multiple top 16 finishers in every event. The attitude Marist’s swimmers had was that they would swim as fast as they could in the morning to score at night.
This strategy worked—Marist won six gold medals and placed on the podium fifteen times in the four days of competition—and they did so in a big way.
The Red Foxes broke ten school records en route to their championship win. Notably, McCormack broke his own record in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 47.94 seconds. Magda and Zaremba also set records in the 200-yard breaststroke and 500-yard freestyle, respectively.
As it stands, the Men’s Swim and Dive team has been voted to repeat as champions in the MAAC Preseason Poll.
To kick off the 2024-25 season, the Marist Men’s Swim and Dive team took down MAAC opponent Canisius to start 1-0, led by senior James Conable—who posted three first-place finishes in the event, earning him MAAC Swimmer of the Week.
The next meet, sophomore Oscar Bjering led the Foxes to a victory against Rider, the team’s second-straight MAAC win. Conable struck again in the third meet of the season, notching three first-place finishes for the second time as the Foxes defeated Fairfield, starting 3-0 on the season in all MAAC meets.
In their next two non-conference meets of the season, rounded team efforts led the Foxes to historic wins over the NJIT Highlanders and Colgate to win their fourth and fifth straight—the first such streak since 2006-07.
Starting 5-0, the Marist Men’s Swim and Dive are serious contenders to take home the MAAC Championship in back-to-back years.
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The Marist women’s swim and dive team placed third in the MAAC Preseason Poll, coming off a 2-5 season and a third-place finish in the MAAC Championship.
The team, despite their five losses, won both of their inter-conference matchups against Canisius and Rider.
The Red Foxes tallied 598 points in the three-day event, falling short of Fairfield and the MAAC Champion Niagara.
The women’s swim and dive team featured one MAAC record-breaker—senior Nellie Thompson set a new MAAC record in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.35. She earned a gold medal for this performance.
She was one of three Red Foxes to have a podium finish in the championship. Leading the way was junior Genevieve O’Neil, who nabbed gold in the 400-yard individual medley. Maddie Healey, now a senior, earned silver in the 1650-yard freestyle and another silver in the 500 and now sophomore April Avila earned silver in the 200-yard breaststroke.
To start their 2024-25 campaign, the Marist women’s swim and dive team fell to Vermont in their home opener, headlined by freshman Rae Dodson’s two first-place finishes.
The next week, the Foxes bounced back in a MAAC win against Canisius led by graduate student Eydis Kolbeinsdottir’s two first-place postings.
The Foxes kept the momentum going, rolling over Rider to notch their second straight MAAC win and improved to 2-1 on the young season.
Against Fairfield, the Foxes fell in a down-to-the-wire finish against Fairfield, 152-148, taking a MAAC loss to their record of 2-2.
Showing their resilience once again, the Foxes notched 180 points to defeat Colgate, led by freshman Anna Hoskovec, Avila and junior Rian Dickman, who all placed first twice in the meet.
Starting the season 3-2 and 2-1 in conference play, the women’s swim and dive team has looked impressive in spurts, a point they need to extend in order to compete for the MAAC Championship.
Editor’s Note: The information about the 2024 MAAC Women’s Swimming & Diving Championship has been changed to more accurately depict what happened.
Photo Credit: Ricky Torres
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