EWING, N.J. – The TCNJ Women's swimming and diving team completed another dominant early-season performance, beating Ramapo 168-65 in the home opener Saturday afternoon.

The Lions once again swept the meet, as the team saw a first place finisher in all 18 events competed in throughout the day. Eight total individual athletes combined to take the 16 individual swimming and diving events.

Coming off a Swimmer of the Week nomination for her season opening performance, senior Shannon Hesse dominated the freestyles with first place finishes in the 100 and 200 free, clocking times of 55.12 and 2:04.82, respectively.

Fellow senior Rachel Hannah dominated by swimming three total top times in the 100 backstroke (1:00.79 secs), 50 freestyle (25.30) and 200 backstroke (2:14.00). Hannah's time in the 200 back narrowly missed out on her personal best of 2:13.14, set in 2019.

Coming off a stellar collegiate debut in which she won the 1000 freestyle, freshman Katelyn Gaulin continued the strong start to her Lions career by dominating the breaststroke. She won the 100 breast after clocking a 1:13.21, and followed up with a top time of 2:36.43 in the 200 breaststroke.

Senior Faith Cortright and graduate student Jamie Bowne each collected two top finishes of their own. Cortright dominated the distance freestyle events with times of 5:33.05 to win the 500 free and swam a 11:20.49 in the 1000 freestyle to clock first. Bowne finished first in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:17.06, and followed up with a time of 1:01.40 in the 100 butterfly.

Sophomore Colleen Scanlon won the 200 Individual Medley race after swimming a time of 2:24.16.

On the boards, two-time NJAC Diver of the Year Gabi Valladares won both 1-meter diving events (6 and 11 dives) with scores of 261.90 and 468.30, respectively. She also placed first in the 3-meter diving (6 dives) event after scoring a 345.00. Her marks in the 1-meter (11 dives) and 3-meter (6 dives) were both new personal bests. Valladares is officially qualified for the Regionals meet for both diving events after her back-to-back stellar performances to start the year.

Also hitting the Regional cuts mark is freshman Beth Evaldi, who won the 3-meter diving (11 dives) with a score of 475.65.

The Lions relay teams showed out in the 200 Medley and 200 Freestyle Relays. The 200 Medley Relay quartet of Scanlon, Cameron Carrazza, Bowne and Hesse took first place with a total time of 1:54.60. In the 200 freestyle relay, Carrazza, Mackenzie Wall, Hannah and Hesse clocked a combined time of 1:41.75 to win.

Following the home opener, TCNJ's next meet will take place on the road when the team travels out to face No. 22 Swarthmore on November 12^th at 2 p.m.