ROCHESTER, NY -- Alfred University's Women's Swimming and Diving program opened up its 2024-25 season with a loss to RIT, but showed lots to like and grow on this season.

"It was great to get racing after a long off-season," head coach Brian Striker '00 said. "It was great to have two women competing in diving for the first time in a bit! We certainly have some work to do, but getting this first meet under our belts was has given us a great starting point."

The team opened up the meet on Friday night with a third place finish in the 200-yard Medley Relay, plus another third place finish with Liv Richeda (Endwell, NY/Maine-Endwell) in the 1,000-yard Freestyle, clocking a time of 12:50.12.

The first win of the evening for the Saxons came from Elizabeth Share (Macedon, NY/Palmyra-Macedon), winning the 100-yard Backstroke with a 59.50, just .05 ahead of the second-place RIT finisher and being just one of three Saxon women to ever break 1:00.00. Share would also collect her second win of the night in the 200-yard Backstroke, finishing five seconds ahead of the next finisher with a 2:10.69. She is the second Saxon woman to break the 2:11.00 barrier.

Sarah Anderson (Wayne, PA/Radnor) followed suit with a win in the 50-Free with a time of 25.58, and earned third place in the 100-yard free clocking a 56.05. Both Share and Anderson would find the podium in the 100-yard Butterfly as well, finishing second and third, respectively, and got nods of appreciation from their coach. 

"Liz [Share] looked great as she was able to secure wins in the backstroke events," Striker said. "Sarah [Anderson] had one of her best meets ever. She swam great times and won the 50-yard Freestyle!"

While they may have lost 215-71, it was certainly a great start against a highly-ranked team. They'll get another chance to show their stuff against SUNY Brockport and Alfred State on October 26 at 1:00 pm in the McLane Natatorium.