PROVIDENCE, RI - The Rider University swimming & diving team travelled to Providence and Brown University to tackle the Bruno Invitational, where they would be joined by fellow Ivy Leaguers Columbia, Dartmouth, and Princeton as well as Rutgers of the Big Ten. The men are in fourth and the women are in fifth place, trailing host and leader Brown University with two days of action remaining. This was Rider's first competitive action in almost three weeks since their wins against Delaware and La Salle in Newark.
Rider was led by junior Zack Molloy (Toms River, NJ/Toms River HS North), who spurred a second-place finish (20.38) in the 50 free preliminaries into a fourth-place finish (20.41) and was the third leg of the 200 free relay team, along with senior Matthan-Matthew Martir (Severn, MD/Old Mill), older brother senior William Molloy (Toms River, NJ/Toms River HS North), and sophomore Vincent Gibbons (North Brunswick, NJ/North Brunswick), that took third place.
Relay teams had plenty of success on the day, with the 400 medley team of freshman Justin Carey (Landenberg, PA/Avon Grove), senior Zach Mabin (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert), Martir, and Gibbons finishing 5th, the 200 free group of freshman Rich Fortels (Monroe, NJ/Monroe Township), senior Ian Flynn (Dresher, PA/Upper Dublin), junior Ben Smith (Forked River, NJ/Lacey Township), and junior Maciej Paz (Garfield, NJ/Paramus Catholic) claimed seventh, and the other 400 medley set of Fortels, sophomore Lucas Musselman (Timonium, MD/Loyola Blakefield), Smith, and Flynn staked a 10th place end result.
For the women, the 400 medley relay team of sophomore Taylor Stalnaker (Monroe, NY/Monroe-Woodbury), junior Julianna Runk (Baltimore, MD/Perry Hall), senior Ariana Palmer (Burlington, NJ/Burlington Township), and senior Jacquelynn Parker (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) took 9th while the second team of sophomore Olivia Cann (Woodbury Heights, NJ/Gloucester Catholic), junior Tara Maniace (Neptune, NJ/Neptune), freshman Casey Wrabley (Forest, VA/Jefferson Forest), and freshman Olivia Iswalt (Reading, PA/Berks Catholic) finished 10th.
Also for the men, William Molloy took third in the prelims (4:32.53) for the 500 free and finished eighth in the finals, Musselman earned a 10th place finish in the 200 IM finals (1:50.78) after placing ninth in the preliminaries, Carey claimed 12th in the prelims (1:52.94) for the 200 individual medley, sophomore Joseph Warker staked 13th in the 1m dive (233.60), and Martir raced to 13th in the 50 free finals (20.92).
The team stays in Providence for the entire weekend as Day 2 of the Bruno Invitational resumes at 11:00 AM Saturday with the 400 IM Prelims.
Women Team Scores After Day 1:
1. Brown University 323
2. Princeton University 241
3. Rutgers University 192
4. Dartmouth College 137
5. Rider University 40
Men Team Scores After Day 1:
1. Brown 308.5
2. Princeton 251
3. Columbia University 167
4. Rider 146
5. Dartmouth 114.5
