Men’s And Women’s Swimming Win Thriller Over Mount Saint Mary College

Click here for complete meet results

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College freshman Chalis Bird (Windsor, Mass.) set an individual school record in the 50-meter freestyle and added a pair of wins, while sophomore Zach LeBarron (Bennington, V.T.) set a new school mark in the 200-meter freestyle and added a victory to help pace the Blazers to a sweep of Mount Saint Mary College in Saturday afternoon’s men’s and women’s swimming dual meet at Partyka Natatorium.

Elms’ women’s squad won 102-95 to improve to 3-3 on the season, while the men’s team earned a 107-92 victory to up its record to 4-1 overall.

For the women, the first of Bird’s two victories came in the 50-meter freestyle when she clocked a 29.80, besting Liz Walker’s time of 29:98 by 18 one-hundredths of a second which she recorded in 2007. Bird also glided to a first-place finish in the 400-meter freestyle, notching a time of 5:23.48 in the event.

Sophomore Ashley Arbo (Kensington, Conn.) also added a pair of top finishes, picking up back-to-back wins in the 200-meter individual medley (2:47.58) and the 100-meter butterfly (1:14.67). Junior Theresa Pitassi (Naugatuck, Conn.) earned top honors in the 100-meter freestyle clocking a 1:08.11, while sophomore Katie Roberts (Torrington, Conn.) registered a 1:29.42 in the 100-meter breaststroke.

The team of Pitassi, Arbo, Bird and freshman Emalee Furtek (Ludlow, Mass.) also set a new school mark in the 200-meter freestyle relay, swimming a speedy 1:59.71 in the contest’s final event. The squad shattered the old mark of 2:06.02 which had stood since 2006.

On the men’s side, LeBarron recorded a time of 2:05.19 in the 200-meter freestyle, breaking his previous best of 2:09.72, en route to a second place finish in the event behind Mount Saint Mary’s Enrique Naudy (Monroe, N.Y.).

Freshman Mark Gehring (West Springfield, Mass.) won the 800-meter freestyle with a time of 9:32.41, sophomore Adam Tonnensen (Norwich, Conn.) won the 50-meter freestyle (26.10), sophomore Garrett Brune (Lakeville, Mass.) and LeBarron touched the wall first in the 100-meter freestyle (58.34) to round out the Blazers’ top individual finishers on the afternoon.

The team of senior Jason DiMauro (New Hartford, Conn.), Brune, LeBarron and Tonnensen swam a 2:04.16 to win the 200-meter medley relay in the meet’s opening event, while the squad of Gehring, sophomore Neil Carney (West Haven, Conn.), junior Joe King (Springfield, Mass.) and senior Mike Starke (Chicopee, Mass.) closed the meet out with a win in the 200-meter freestyle relay (1:56.69).

Sophomore Mike Desmond (Nashua, N.H.) also made his season debut after a long stint of battling leukemia. Desmond inspirationally swam the 200-meter freestyle and 100-meter freestyle events in his first competition of the 2009-10 season.

For Mount Saint Mary’s, Naudy earned three first-place finishes in the 200-meter freestyle (2:03.85), the 200-meter individual medley (2:28.85) and the 500-meter freestyle (4:28.47).

For the Blue Knights’ women, Brianna Perazella (Cheshire, Conn.) was their top performer, scoring wins in the 200-meter freestyle (2:23.79) and 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:17.27.

The Elms men’s team returns to action on Friday, January 15, when they travel to Clark University at 1:00 p.m. The women’s squad will compete against Mount Holyoke on January 15 also at Clark University.