By Zachary Waltz
Staff Writer
The men’s swimming and diving team is coming off a bronze-medal performance at the Zippy Invite at Akron.
The team had seven top-three individual swimmers highlighted by gold medal finishes by junior Jimmy Martin in the 200-yard freestyle and sophomore Vatslav Lets in the 200-yard backstroke. The Bonnies also had three top-three relay teams, the best of which was a silver medal finish by the 400-yard medley relay team of freshman Michael Pilyugin, freshman Matthew Schutt, Lets and Martin. After the first day, the Bonnies ended with 343.5 points, good enough for fourth place and held their spot on the second day with 809. However, they finished with 1262.5 points to take third.
Senior Nathan Destree said the team competed really well at the meet, and he was impressed with the relay performances.
“A lot of the teams put in a full shave and taper and really prepared for this meet,” Destree said. “We put in a couple days rest, but this isn’t our focus meet. Our focus meet is the Atlantic 10 Championships in February and for the rest and preparation we put in we did really well.
Coach Sean McNamee said the main focus for the meet was not to perform well collectively as a team, but rather to serve as more experience before the A-10s.
“As far as a team outcome, we weren’t really focused on where we finished as far as a group,” McNamee said. “We learned a lot coming out of it. We had some solid indicators and showed some areas we need improvement.”
Pilyugin was named A-10 Co-Rookie of the Week after his performance at the Zippy Invite. Pilyugin swam a 50.22 in the 100-yard backstroke, which is the fastest posted time in the A-10 this year, but it was only good enough to earn him silver. He posted a 1:50.11 in the 200-yard backstroke, earning a bronze medal. His time is second fastest in the A-10 behind Pilyugin’s teammate Lets. McNamee named Pilyugin Performer of the Meet after his swims at the Pitt Invite two weeks ago.
McNamee said he looks to use the upcoming Christmas break to put it in a lot of work for the A-10s since the championships are about a month after break.
“This is really aggressive training right now,” McNamee said. “This next month and a half is very critical for us, so we’ll be pushing it hard.”
