BRISTOL, R.I. – The Roger Williams Women's Swimming and Diving team lost their season opening home event on Saturday against a strong team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  The Hawks were beaten by a score of 172-125 by RPI.  On the bright side, they were able to break a number of school records in the first event of the season.

In the 200-yd Freestyle Relay event, the Hawks were able to lock down first and third positions to earn some points.  The team of Melly Marrington (Farmington, Conn.), Brigid Houlihan (Nahant, Mass.), Ursula Nickerson (Torrington, Conn.), and Casey Meagher (Billerica, Mass.) were able to win the event with a time of 1:47.88.  Houlihan also won the 1000-yd Freestyle event in a time of 11:39.20, which was 15 seconds ahead of second place finisher Marissa Carr (Arlington, Mass.).  Also performing well in her individual events, Marrington was able to set new school records in both the 100-yd Butterfly and 100-yd Freestyle with times of 1:02.98 and 57.70 respectively.  Freshman Ashley Kichline (Souderton, Pa.) had an impressive debut as she was able to break two school records of her own in the 50-yd Backstroke and the 100-yd Backstroke in times of 30.01 seconds and 1:04.50 respectively.  The final record on the day to fall was in the 200-yd Freestyle where Caitlin O'Connor (Wallingford, Conn.) finished in a time of 2:05.61.

The Women's Swimming and Diving team returns to the pool on Wednesday as they will host Wheaton College at 4:00 p.m.