Men's Swimming and Diving | October 27, 2015

NEWPORT NEWS, Va.- The Atlantic 10 Conference announced that La Salle freshmen Olivia DiStefano and Aleksandar Nikolic have both been named Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Women's and Men's Rookie of the Week following their performances this past week.
 
For DiStefano, this is the second time this season she has earned the honor. The Philadelphia native won a pair of races, while also recording six second place finishes over the week. Against Villanova she won the 100-yard backstroke thanks to a time of 58.60, which was 2.54 seconds clear of the field. She repeated as 100-yard backstroke champion against Drexel with a 58.04 time, 2.16 seconds clear of the nearest competitor. Against Villanova she finished second in the 200-yard backstroke (2:08.25), 400-yard medley relay (3:39.89) and 200-yard freestyle relay (3:59.89). Against the Dragons she also collected three second place finishes in the 50-yard freestyle (24.73), 200-yard medley relay (1:50.50) and 400-yard freestyle relay (3:36.33).
 
Nikolic earned the honor after picking up a pair of individual wins and two relay wins as well as three second place finishes over the course of the week. Against Villanova, Nikolic won the 100-yard freestyle race thanks to a time of 48.30 to best the field by 1.23 seconds. He also helped the 200-yard freestyle relay team swim a time of 1:29.18 as he swam the anchor with a 21.64 second split to pick up the win by .86 seconds. The Nis, Serbia native won the 200-yard freestyle race with a season-best time of 1:43.88 to win by .82 seconds. He also swam anchor in the 400-yard freestyle relay to help the team swim a 3:10.31 for a 1.13 second win.
 
Both DiStefano and Nikolic as well as the rest of the Explorers return to action on Saturday as they head to Geneva, Ohio and the Spire Institute to take on Duquesne, St. Bonaventure, and Saint Louis with the action getting underway at 10 a.m.