Purple Knights Hit The Water For The First Time In 2018 At Iona

New Rochelle, N.Y.-The University of Bridgeport men's and women's swimming teams returned to the water for the first time in 2018 on Friday afternoon with a dual meet at Iona College, and the host Gaels won both competitions taking the men's meet, 136-123, and winning the women's meet, 180-79.

On the women's side, senior Annagrazia Bonsanti (Caracas, Venezuela) and junior Nina Stegu (Ljublijana, Slovenia) were double-event winners, as Annagrazia continued her dominance in distance events taking first place in the 1650-Yard Freestyle (17:42.51) and the 500-Yard Freestyle (5:16.71), and Nina top the podium in the 200-Yard Freestyle (1:56.50) and the 100-Yard Freestyle (53.76).

The Bridgeport women also won the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay in a time of 1:43.26. Three UB men were double-event winners on Friday, as junior Wilmar Du Plessis (Bloemfontein, South Africa) captured the 100-Yard Backstroke (52.34) and the 200-Yard Backstroke (1:55.22), freshman Kosta Mitrovic (Belgrade, Serbia) took top honors in the 100-Yard Breaststroke (1:00.33) and the 100-Yard Breaststroke (2:10.91) plus classmate Jose Javato (Caceres, Spain) won the 200-Yard Butterfly (1:59.45) and the 400-Yard IM (4:15.49).

Sophomore Erik Hren (Maribor, Slovenia) took first in the 500-Yard Freestyle (4:45.10), and junior Nick Semenov (Kiev, Ukraine) won the 100-Yard Freestyle (48.31) to round out the individual event winners on Friday for the Purple Knights' men.

Up next, the UB swim teams will return to action in two weeks when they open a busy weekend with three consecutive com