Owls Celebrate Seniors, Win Pair of Dual Meets

WESTFIELD, Mass.  – Westfield State swimming and diving celebrated the careers of seniors Molly Finnegan and Kara Banagan on Saturday, then went out and swam past UMass-Dartmouth, 162-41 to cap the home portion of the schedule for the Owls.

Westfield won for the second straight day as they topped Elms College, 131-116 in a hard fought dual meet at the Ely Pool on Friday evening.

Westfield will finish with a 3-3 record in dual meets this season under first-year head coach Matt Nodell.

Westfield State swimming has finished with a .500 or better record in dual meet competition in each of the last 29 seasons.

"We had a fantastic senior meet, all the girls swam super, super," said Nodell.  "We had a great meet last night with Elms College, all best times across the board, pretty much. Ultimately, this is the best group that I have had coaching, and I'm the utmost greatful at the hard work they put in on a day to day basis, and I'm so excited to see what they do at the Little East Championships."

Finnegan was involved in a couple of the tightest races of the day, winning the 100-yard butterfly in 1:10.61, just 3/10 of a second ahead of UMD's Ella Girardi.

Finnegan took second place in the 50 butterfly in 30.74, just .07 seconds behind teammate and winner Alexa Richter.

Finnegan and Richter were both part of the Owls 200 free relay team that placed first against the short-handed Corsairs in 1:56.22 to cap the meet.

Paige Brandt took both the 1- and 3-meter diving events with scores of 149.32 and 118.05.

Richter won the 1000 free and the 100 back.  Katie Colby topped the 200 freestyle, Liv Harkins was a winner in the 200 backstroke.

The Owls Jackie Roccabruna doubled up in winning both the 50 and 500 freestyle events.   Ally Linkenhoker hit the wall first in the 100 IM and and the 100 breast.

For UMD, Kyle Winer was the winner in the 100 free and the 200 breaststroke events.

The Owls will now taper for the Little East Conference Championship meet, Feb. 16-17-18 at the Boston Sport Institute.

Westfield 131, Elms 116

Westfield State won the last three events to emerge with a 131-116 win over Elms College on Friday night.

Paige Brant topped the 3-meter diving with a score of 121.05, Liv Harkins closed out her opponent in the 200 im, and the Owls 400 free relay team posted a time of 4:05.50 to win by 1.5 seconds to hold off the Blazers in a tightly contested meet.

Brant snared 18 points for the Owls by topping both the 1 and 3-meter diving categories.

Harkins added a win in the 50 backstroke, and Ally Linkenhoker came home first in both the 100 back and 200 butterfly events.

Westfield coach Matt Nodell was pleased with his team's overall performance.

"I want to highlight first-years Kyra Floyd, for dropping six seconds off her 100 breaststroke time, and Katie Colby for taking 30 seconds off her 500 free time as well," he said.