BRONXVILLE, N.Y. - The Sarah Lawrence swim team picked up right where they left of in 2022-23, starting their 2023-24 season with a quad-meet sweep against Bard College, Western Connecticut State University and William Paterson University.

The meet started off with the 200 yard medley relay, a race which Sarah Lawrence's group took by a second over the second-place team. Ella Hernan started off the race and was followed by Hannah Drum and Kelani Talma before Josie Laur finished out the race. The second relay team competed in the 200 yard freestyle relay, finishing in first place once again, with a five-second cushion over the runner-up team. Talma, Laur, Hernan and Genevieve Chiappetta rounded out the relay team that finished the race in 1:51.60. SLC's second relay team raced in the same 200 yard freestyle race, finishing in fourth place less than a second out of the top-three. First Years Sonjia Armitage, Jocelyn Engel, Juliet DeLap and Linda Kelly rounded out the team as they finished with a time of 2:18.55, just 0:00.59 behind the team from Bard who took third place.

The team's lone senior, the aforementioned Chiappetta, earned the first individual victory of the meet for the Gryphons, claiming the win in the 200 yard freestyle just four events into the meet. Chiappetta finished a whopping 16 seconds before the second-place swimmer, finishing with a time of 2:13.11. The senior also finished second in the 100 yard backstroke, finishing less than a second behind the event winner with a time of 1:08.48. 

Sophomore Ella Hernan earned the next victory for the Gryphons, taking home the win in the 50 yard backstroke with a time of 31.20, edging out the second-place swimmer from William Paterson by 0.02. The aforementioned Laur finished fourth in the race and first-years Sonjia Armitage and Juliet DeLap took home sixth and seventh place respectively. Hernan finished third in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 1:09.90, a second behind teammate Chiappetta and over three seconds faster than the next finisher.

First-year Hannah Drum had multiple top finishes, the first of which was a second-place in the 50 yard breaststroke. The first-year from Manitou Springs, Colo. completed the race in 38.12 while teammates McKenzie Schaffer-Kay and Allie Abemayor completed the race in sixth-and eighth-place respectively. Drum's best finish was an event victory in the 50 yard butterfly. The Colorado native completed the race in 29.28 to lead all competitors. Two events later, she earned her third individual top-three finish with a third-place in the 100 yard IM with a time of 1:11.97, just 0:00.06 off second place. 

Keilani Talma, the reigning Skyline rookie of the year, took home two separate individual first-place finishes on Saturday. The sophomore from Bridgetown, Barbados won both the 100 yard butterfly and the 100 yard freestyle. In the 100 yard butterfly, Talma took first place by nearly five seconds, finishing with a time of 1:04.24. In the freestyle, the sophomore won with a time of 58.68, finishing almost a second ahead of the runner-up and 20 seconds ahead of the third-place finisher.

Josie Laur took home a second-place finish individually in addition to the relay victory, finishing the 50 yard freestyle in 28:51, under a second behind the first-place finisher.

First-year Sonjia Armitage took home fourth place in the 100 yard breaststroke, finishing one second out of the top three with a time of 1:38.55.

Up Next

The Gryphons will return to the Campbell Sports Center Pool next Saturday, October 28th, as they host Purchase College, St. Joseph's Long Island and the Fashion Institute of Technology for another quad-match in Bronxville. The meet is scheduled for another 1:00 p.m. start time.