By Harrison Leone
Staff Writer
The women’s swim team hopes to rebound after last weekend’s home loss to Cleveland State (143-99). The women have this weekend and Thanksgiving week off. The Bonnies will be back in the water Nov. 30 when they travel to Akron, Ohio, to compete in the five-day Zippy Invitational.
“There’s always stiff competition there,” Coach Seth Johnson said. “There will even be some Division-2 schools there this year that will really get ready for that meet”.
Last season, St. Bonaventure finished 12 out of 14 schools. Last year, fellow A-10 schools Xavier and Duquesne finished 8 and 9, respectively. Ohio University won the meet.
Johnson said the team will use the Akron meet to prepare for conference meets later in the season.
“We use this meet as a dress rehearsal for the A-10 championships,”Johnson said. “Our goal at this point in the year is really to get people used to swimming in college tournaments.”
Last weekend, the Bonnies held their first home meet of the season when Cleveland State visited the Reilly Center. The Bonnies fell to the Vikings. The defeat marks the fourth year in a row SBU has fallen to Cleveland State.
Sophomore Rachel Bull and freshmen Adelyn Graf and Elizabeth Malone led the Bonnies with strong performances.
Bull, a native of Croydon, England, swam to first place in the 200-yard freestyle and came in second in the 500-yard freestyle. Graf took first in 200 back, while Malone set the pace in the 200 IM.
Bull was not the only international student who swam well for the Bonnies, as German Jeanette Dietrich finished second in the 200 freestyle and third in the 100 freestyle.
“I thought we performed well, given the circumstances,” Johnson said. “We had a hard week of training going into the meet and that can affect you on the day of the meet. I’m focusing on how we respond to this meet going forward into the season.”
The meet marked the first of three where the Bonnies will hold the advantage of swimming in the Reilly Center, with the next events coming in late January.
Despite being scheduled alongside the women’s basketball regular season home opener, the meet still garnered a supportive turnout.
“We had a really good crowd this past weekend,” Johnson said. “It was nice to see some people turn out and help to create a very good atmosphere.”
The upcoming Akron meet is the last competition of the fall semester for St. Bonaventure. The winter break offers a test of the team’s resilience.
“The winter break is kind of like the beginning of the year all over again, with a lot of training and no meets to look forward to at the end of the week,” Johnson said. “It would be great to have some momentum coming out of Akron. It reminds us that A-10s are just around the corner.”
