Oct. 9, 2009

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - The Marist men's and women's swimming and diving program, under the direction of 33rd year director of aquatics, Larry VanWagner and 20th season associate head coach and head diving coach, Melanie Bolstad, return 32 letter winners to the program, behind 14 men and 18 women. The men's team will be led by captains seniors Mitchell Katz (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) and Kevin Quinn (Neponsit, N.Y.), and junior Steven Vendetta (South Windsor, Conn.), while seniors Emily Hammang (Barrington, R.I.) and Victoria Kemp (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) will serve as captains for the women's squad.

Senior Jenell Walsh-Thomas (Medford, N.J.) returns for her final season with the women's program. She has won nine Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) events, and is yet to lose a single event at the three-day meet. Last season she became the first swimmer in the conference to swim the 500-yd. freestyle in under five minutes; Walsh-Thomas holds three MAAC records. She will anchor the distance freestyle events along with Hammang. Freshman Kate Conard (East Setauket, N.Y.) joins the Red Foxes after she produced several of the top freestyle distance times, during her scholastic career.

Last season, Kemp swam to a personal best time in the 200-yd. butterfly (2:09.97), good for a fourth place finish at the 2009 MAAC championships. She also swam this summer at the Senior Metropolitan Long Course Championships. Kemp raced in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly events.

Fellow senior Lyndsay Martin (Schenectady, N.Y.) brought home three top-five finishes from the conference championship meet. She will lead the charge in the 100-yd. breaststroke and butterfly events. Also assisting in the breaststroke and butterfly events will be freshmen Katie Larkin (Huntington, N.Y.) and Chelsea Unger (Marlboro, N.J.).

Senior Alyssa Hewitt (Pittsfield, Mass.) returns to the squad for her final season. She competed in the final heat of the 2009 MAAC Championships in three events: the 100-yd. backstroke, the 200-yd. backstroke and the 400-yd. IM. She finished eighth in all three events. Additionally, she swam the second leg of the 200-yd. freestyle relay, which finished in fourth place with a mark of 1:38.04.

The Red Foxes' diving corps, led by junior Jenna Finn (North Easton, Mass.), who finished fifth in women's 1-meter diving at the 2009 MAAC Championships, and sophomore Meredith Michl (Delmar, N.Y.), who finished second in 1-meter diving and fourth in 3-meter diving at last year's conference championship meet. Senior Kristine Maier (Stony Point, N.Y.) and Chelanie Eliazar (Honolulu, Hawaii) are the two newcomers to the corp.

On the men's side, senior Alan Roberts (Middletown, N.Y.) enters the season after a strong junior campaign, his first with the Red Foxes. After he set records in the MAAC and ECAC championships in the 100-yd. breaststroke, he qualified for the 2009 U.S. Open in the event, a long course event. Marist will also use freshmen Brian Shannon (Baldwin, N.Y.) and Daniel Collins (Brooklyn, N.Y.) in the breaststroke events.

In the men's freestyle events, sophomore Patrick Shea (Peabody, Mass.) and junior Leo Draham (Blue Bell, Pa.) will lead the distance corps. The pair combined to finish in the top-16 in the 500-, 1,000-, and 1,650-yd. freestyle events at the MAAC Championships. Juniors Keith Miller (Missoula, Mont.) and Joshua Sklanka (Watertown, Conn.) will lead the sprint and middle distance freestyle events. Sophomore Kevin Shoemaker (Saucon Valley, Pa.) will also contribute in the individual medley and butterfly events.

Quinn is in his second season as captain of the Red Foxes. He finished in the top-12 of three events in the 2008 MAAC Championships. He took seventh in the 400-yd. IM, 11th in the 200-yd. backstroke and 12th in the 200-yd. IM.

School record holders Katz and Brian Bolstad (Highland, N.Y.) return as two prominent divers for the men's team this season. The pair set the men's diving records in the final dual meet of the 2008-09 season at Seton Hall. Katz holds the 1-meter record, while Bolstad stands alone off the 3-meter board. They will be the lone divers for the men's team for the upcoming year.

This season the Red Foxes will play a competitive schedule to prepare for the 2010 MAAC Championships, which will take place from Feb. 11-13 at Loyola University.

Marist will open the season on Saturday, Oct. 10 as it hosts its annual Red/White Challenge, an intrasquad scrimmage. On Oct. 16-17, the Red Foxes will travel to the Orange Invitational to compete against Army of the Patriot League and Syracuse University of the BIG EAST.

Following the invitational, Marist will compete in will compete in 11 dual meets prior to the conference championships. Marist will host Fordham (Oct. 22), Siena and Binghamton (Nov. 21), the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (Jan. 24) and Seton Hall (Jan. 30) at the James J. McCann Center.

During the dual meets season, the Red Foxes will race against Rider (Oct. 31) on the road, at Fairfield (Nov. 7), against Delaware, Iona and Loyola in the H20unds Invitational (Dec. 4-5), at Lehigh (Jan. 9), and at Southern Connecticut (Jan. 16).

Following the MAAC Championships, Marist will travel to Pittsburgh, Pa. for the ECAC Championships, which will take place from Feb. 26-28. The season will conclude for divers that qualify at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships from March 12-13. Rutgers will host the zone diving meet.