By Harrison Leone
Staff Writer
The women’s swimming team will hit the water today to race against Atlantic 10 rivals Duquesne, La Salle and Xavier in Geneva, Ohio.
“That meet is going to be a good measuring stick to see where we’re at against other A-10 teams,” Coach Seth Johnson said.
The meet will be held at the Spire Institute, who will also play host to the A-10 championships next February.
“The A-10 gets stronger and stronger each year,” Johnson said. “There’s no one who’s really weak that you don’t have to worry about. It’ll be good to get our kids a little experience in the championship pool.”
The Bonnies kicked the season off earlier this month by traveling to Pittsburgh to compete against the University of Pittsburgh.
At Pittsburgh, the ladies fell to the host school 240.5-56.5. No Bonaventure swimmer finished first in an event, although Sophomore Lauren Caldwell did finish 2nd in the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard IM.
“We swam well, we were just overmatched. Pitt is a strong school that’s continuing to get stronger,” Johnson said. “All and all I was pleased with how we swam.”
This past Friday, the team then traveled north to take on Little Three Rival Canisius.
SBU had a strong meet against Golden Griffins, taking the meet 145.5-88.5. The team also set five pool records. Junior Jeanette Dietrich took first in two events, the 200-and 100-yard freestyles.
“We swam very well, considering we had a pretty tough week of training. I was happy with how we swam, especially the record performances,” Johnson said.
The swimmers who set the individual records were freshmen Adelyn Graf, Erin Cervone, Elizabeth Malone and junior McKenzie Courtney. The team set Canisius pool records in the 400 yard freestyle relay, the 400 yard medley relay, 1000 yard freestyle, 200 yard backstroke and the 200 yard buttefly.
St. Bonaventure fields a young squad this year, with only one senior compared to 16 freshmen.
Johnson said the youth of this team could be one of their biggest strengths.
“The biggest thing right now is to obviously gain experience, but when you’ve got youth on the team, you’ve got excitement.” Johnson said. “We’ve got a lot of mature kids here. They know what it takes, they know the hard work. As long as we stay on that path, we’ll be alright.”
Johnson said the stress of adapting to college life has not been a problem for his freshman.
“They’ve done a very good job,” Johnson said. “Regardless of where you’re from, one thing that remains constant is doing what they’ve done since they were young, and that’s getting in the water and swimming. I think it definitely helps young swimmers acclimate.”
St. Bonaventure has its sights set high for the season, following a year that saw the team finish 7th in the conference.
“We’ve got a lot of hard workers on our team.” Johnson said. “We always look to be in the top three of our conference, and we feel we have the talent to be right in the mix and achieve our goals.”
