By Zach Waltz
Contributing Writer
The men’s swimming and diving team defeated Little Three rival Canisius 145-90 last Friday. The Bonnies’ next meet is a tri-meet against Xavier and LaSalle.
Head coach Sean McNamee said he looks at this meet as preparation for the Atlantic 10 Championships as it is held in the pool where the A-10s will be held in Geneva, Ohio.
McNamee said he and the other coaches specifically designed the meet to allow new swimmers to swim in the pool where the championships are held every year. They also designed a different format for the meet to make it more challenging for the athletes.
“We designed a format which is kind of like an ironman format for swimming,” McNamee said. “It’s not a traditional dual meet format— it’s quite rigorous, and event lineups are quite difficult.”
Last Friday, the team broke seven of Canisius’ pool records. The Bonnies broke two relay records including the 400-yard medley relay composed of freshmanMichael Pilyugin, freshman Matthew Schutt, senior Nathan Destree and junior Jimmy Martin. The 400-yard freestyle relay composed of Martin, Pilyugin, Destree and Vatslav Lets. Five individuals also broke records at the meet including the 200-yard freestyle by Lets, the 50-yard freestyle by Martin, the 200-yard butterfly by senior Elias Homerin, the 500-yard freestyle by Lets, and the 100-yard freestyle by Martin.
McNamee said he was very pleased with the team’s performance and is glad to see them performing well so early in the season.
“Canisius has gotten a lot better,” McNamee said. “They used to be a team we would swim a lot of out-of-event swims; kids wouldn’t swim in their primary strengths. We’d be able to swim off-events, but they’ve improved to the point that we have to take them serious, and with that, we have to swim a competitive lineup, which we’re pretty good right now.”
Sophomore Matt Rochna said the team is starting to really improve their times and it shows.
“It basically means a lot for the team because it shows all the hard work we’ve been putting in this season is starting to come together a little bit,” Rochna said.
