As some coaches will tell you, a team's success isn't always measured in points. It can be measured by your freshmen.
Both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams started their seasons by hosting the Western New York Invitational on Saturday and debuting 14 freshmen swimmers in the process.
Buffalo's opponents included Binghamton University, St. Bonaventure, Niagara University and Canisius College. Although this wasn't a team-scored event, the teams were extremely competitive heat after heat.
The invitational started with the women's 200-medley relay. The ‘A' team, which consisted of freshman Katelyn Pratt-Collins, sophomore Brynn Marceki, junior Jessie Koltz, and freshman Caroline Simmons, placed first with a time of 1:48.07. The ‘B' team recorded a second-place finish, clocking in just behind their teammates with a time of 1:49.86.
The rest of the swimming team followed the two relay teams' successful finishes. Buffalo ended its afternoon with an electrifying win over St. Bonaventure in the men's 4x200 relay, with nine-hundredths of a second separating the two squads.
There were victories at the beginning, in the end and everywhere in between. Out of the 34 swimming events, Buffalo won 18 of them.
Marceki led the team by winning three more events: the 200 individual medley in 2:11.17, the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.03, and the 200 breaststroke in 2:24.15.
Senior Zach Ruske also had a standout afternoon, leading the men's 4x200 relay to a first-place finish. He also won the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:54.36.
'We performed well, but I think there're still some areas that we really need to improve on,' said head coach Andy Bashor.
Though Buffalo had mostly successful results, Bashor saw a few flaws during the team's performance, but feels they are problems that can be solved.
'I just think we need to be more aggressive in the beginning of the races and have more confidence in trusting their ability a little bit more,' Bashor said.
As for the freshmen's performance, Bashor noted that there was some inconsistency.
'The biggest thing for a freshman is learning how to race when they're tired and just being able to be more consistent,' he said. 'That's something we need to work on as a team, just being more consistent.'
After Saturday's performance, diving coach Karla Hedler had a positive outlook on how the rest of the diving team's season is going to turn out, especially after senior Meili Carpenter won her diving event by over a 100-point margin.
'I see some very, very strong meets happening,' Hedler said. 'We're going to be extremely competitive in the [Mid-American Conference].'
Despite not having team scoring, Hedler believes that her veteran team won the event.
'Everybody did a little bit of everything very, very well,' Hedler said. 'That's the beautiful part of having a slightly older team. They get a chance to work well with together, and they support each other.'
The swimming and diving team has its first dual meet on Oct. 23 against Duquesne at the Alumni Arena. It is scheduled to start at 4 p.m.
E-mail: sports@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
