In a tournament filled with personal bests and signs of improvement, the UB women's swimming and diving team came up short in team points as it finished in last place over the weekend at the SummaCare Invitational.
The Bulls squared off against some tough competition this weekend in Akron, Ohio, scoring 937 points in 20 events.
"We held our own in the meet, especially considering we had half the number of swimmers some of the other teams had," said head coach Scott Vanderzell.
UB freshman Rachel Sorg led the team with a first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 58.62, a career best. It was a highly intense finish as Sorg held off four other racers who finished within three-tenths of a second. Sorg came into the finals with the third-fastest preliminary time in the event, and sophomore Cassy Oliveri had a season-best 59.73, to finish second in the B final and 10th overall.
Setting season bests was the mark for the day, and junior Kahla Walkinshaw followed suit as she finished second in the 100-yard butterfly, setting her season-best of 57.62 in the event. The only swimmer to beat Walkinshaw in the event was All-Mid-American Conference performer Danielle Beland of Akron, who broke her own meet record to take the title in the event. Junior Jennifer Raimondi had a season-best time of 1:00.09 and finished sixth in the B final (14th overall) while senior Jackie English won the C final (17th overall) and also had a season-best time of 59.60.
Junior Danielle Gervais chipped in championship final points with a seventh-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. Gervais reached the finals by establishing a season-best time of 1:07.74 in the preliminary round.
"The team did a great job," Vanderzell said. "Overall, we had 12 lifetime bests at this meet, and that's outstanding."
The Bulls' relay teams also had a solid showing at Saturday night's finals. The foursome of Sorg, Gervais, Walkinshaw, accompanied by sophomore Andrea Scharf, had a season-best of 1:49.46 and placed third overall in the 200-yard medley relay.
The 800-yard freestyle relay foursome of Raimondi, English, Walkinshaw and senior Rachael Rubin finished sixth in 7:53.11, also a season best.
"I was very impressed," Vanderzell said. "Our relays were faster in this meet than they were all of last year."
In the final day of the meet, UB was still going strong and finished in many favorable places. Among them was Sorg's ninth place in the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 2:06.55, exactly two seconds faster than her previous season-best. Her preliminary mark of 2:10.79 also put her in the ninth slot.
In the 200-yard breaststroke, two UB swimmers worked their way into the top six, as Gervais, and junior Julie Marcotte, finished third and sixth with times of 2:25.04 and 2:26.84, respectively. Both times were season-bests for the competitors.
The day's final event was the 200-yard butterfly, which Walkinshaw placed second out of 27 with a time of 2:06.30. The second-place finish was the same as her 100-yard butterfly finish, beaten only by Akron's Beland in both races.
The Bulls concluded the SummaCare Invitational on Sunday.
The invitational title went to Illinois State University with 1,588 points, 300 more points than second-place Akron.
Next on the agenda for the women is a training trip to Scottsdale, Ariz., where the team will be working to improve in the off-season.
"We stay for eight days and train hard two times a day," Vanderzell said.
The UB squad then comes home to Buffalo in preparation for its next meet which will be held in Alumni Arena against Niagara on Jan. 18 at 6 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
