STATE COLLEGE, Pa. –  Junior Anna Bojana Forjan provided one of the shining moments in the season-opener for the St. Bonaventure women's swim and dive team by winning the 200-backstroke handily and posting the meet's second-fastest split in the 400-freestyle relay Thursday afternoon at Penn State.

In the team standings, the Nittany Lions captured the win, 211-81.

Forjan dominated the 200-back with a winning time of 2:00.17, well ahead of second-place Julia Barto of PSU (2:04.12).

Bonaventure freshmen Sophie Baker and Kate Hill finished second in the 100-backstroke (56.09) and 100-free (51.89), respectively. Hill also registered a third-place finish in the 50-free (24.07).

Sophomore Dhavgely Mendoza tallied a final score of 256.13 from the 1-meter board, good for second at the meet, behind the winning tally of 262.95 from Penn State's Grace Brammer.

In the 200-medley relay, Bona's team of Forjan, Baker, Hill and Anna Beth Blankenship took second with a time of 1:44.62.

Forjan, Hill, Baker and Nele Vetter clocked in at 3:27.77 in the 400-free relay to place second.

Vetter was Bona's top finisher in the 200-free, touching the wall in 1:53.82, while Sarah Gonzalez led the team in the 100-breast (1:06.07) and Grace Purtell recorded the top mark for the Bonnies in the 200-fly (2:09.34).

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MIKE SMIECHOWSKI
"This was an awesome first meet for our women, and a great building block. Our goal when we started this rebuild was to climb our program up the Atlantic 10 ranks and become a perennial contender. "Today we won races against a very talented Big Ten team. I couldn't be prouder of our women or more excited for the year. Kudos to Penn State for being great hosts. They have a talented team and are well coached."

UP NEXT
Bonaventure will compete again this weekend at a tri-meet against Rutgers and Fordham, hosted at Rutgers on Saturday.
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