The Alumni Arena Natatorium was splashing with excitement last Saturday afternoon as the men and women's swimming and diving teams were triumphant in their last regular season meet.
The men's team (6-2, 1-1 Mid-American Conference) defeated St. Bonaventure (2-5, 0-1 Atlantic-10 Conference), 161-127 while the women's team (7-2, 2-1 MAC) took home its sixth straight win of the season, disposing of St. Bonaventure (2-6, 1-1 A-10) by a score of 174-103.
The evening before, the men's team faced off against Penn State (5-6, 1-4 Big Ten Conference). The Bulls lost 129-110 to the Nittany Lions, but head coach Andy Bashor believes that the result does not mean the meet was not a success. He believes that the meet was good preparation for the postseason.
"I wanted to get [Penn State] on the schedule because that's probably going to be the best team we see all year before we get to conferences," Bashor said. "We really go there for the competition knowing that it's going to be really, really tough. It [also] helped us because our MAC Championship meet is a three-day meet and so we swam last night and we're swimming today so it's kind of a little bit of a rehearsal."
The Bulls kicked off the meet against St. Bonaventure with a one-two finish in the 200-yard medley relay for both the men and women's teams. The men's relay team showed no discouragement from their loss at Penn State as freshman Phil Aronica, sophomores Matt Hogan and Matt Schwippert, and junior Jared Heine swam a season-best time of 1:30.91.
Following the medley relay was the lengthy 40-lap, 1,000-yard freestyle in which Bulls junior Amanda Reall placed first with a time of 10:41.29. Her teammate, sophomore Emma Miller, followed shortly after with a time of 10:44.05, leaving St. Bonaventure's swimmers in their wake.
During the final 10 laps of the men's 1,000 freestyle, the Bulls cheered on their teammate, freshman Eric Culver, as the intensity heightened with each flip turn against the Bonnies' sophomore Ethan Rowan. He came up 1.10 seconds short against Rowan with a time of 9:32.54. Later in the day, Culver went on to win the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:54.28.
The Bulls continued to have success throughout the meet, as more season-best times were recorded by the swimmers. Sophomore Karly Moore clocked in at 24.17 in the 50-yard freestyle, sophomore Logan Mason finished the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:08.37, and freshman Tracy Vogel earned a 1:56.00 in the 200-yard freestyle.
Sophomore Christian Muller also earned a season-best for the men's team in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 58.85.
Buffalo finished on top in both diving events. Freshman Ava Giachino won the one-meter dive with 247.43 points and the three-meter dive with 234.45 points.
Senior Kenny Rhoades won the three-meter dive for the men's team, earning 348.45 points, while junior Colin Patrician finished in first place in the one-meter dive with 332.33 points.
Bashor was smiling at the end of the meet, proud of the men and women's performances.
"It's good to finish like this to give us the confidence to go into the MAC [championships]," Bashor said. "We still have a lot of work to do. There's still a lot of things we need to correct and fine-tune, but I believe that we're going to get there."
Saturday's meet was not only a victory for the Bulls, but a celebration for the men and women's graduating seniors. Before the first event, seniors Sterling Gell, Jordan Deren, Jessie Koltz, Alisa Koopman, Catherine Scharf, Renae Sharkey, and Rhoades were honored by their teammates, friends, and family. These seniors hold a special place in Bashor's heart.
"This is my fifth year [as head coach] so this is my first class that I recruited," Bashor said. "They put their trust in me and it's been really great to see how the program has grown. Each year they've been here, they just keep getting better and better."
Next stop for the Bulls are the MAC Championships. The women's team will be competing in Athens, Ohio from Feb. 23-26, while the men's team will be in Carbondale, Ill. from March 3-5.
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