By Harrison Leone
Staff Writer
With the fall semester nearing its conclusion, the women’s swimming and diving team takes a break from competing until Jan. 19 when the Binghamton Bearcats come to the Reilly Center.
The time off does not mean the team is afforded an easy winter break, according to Coach Seth Johnson.
“The girls have to be going hard for the entire break,” Johnson said. “They will need to keep up the pace if they’re going to be successful later in the season.”
Freshman Shannon Haberman agreed the following weeks will be a time of hard work.
“It’ll be busy, but we’ll all get the work done,” Haberman said. “We’ll be looking forward to the final meets and focusing on the A-10s.”
The final meet of 2012 for the Bonnies came last weekend when the teams traveled to Akron, Ohio to compete in the Zippy Invitational. St. Bonaventure came in 7th place out of ten competing schools. Also at the meet were Big Four rivals Buffalo and Niagara University who finished 4th and 10th respectively. Last season at the invitational, the Bonnies finished 12th.
“We accomplished what we wanted to,” Johnson said. “There were a lot of MAC schools and they’re a very strong conference for swimming. It was good to get experience against such quality competition.”
St. Bonaventure consistently swam well as a team throughout the three-day event, finishing the first day in 8th and placing in 7th for the final two days of the meet.
“As the weekend went on, we matured and got stronger.” Johnson said. “For some of our younger kids, this was their first type of meet in this style. This meet was especially important for them to realize what it takes to succeed at this level.”
The top swimmers for the Bonnies were Haberman, who finished 5th in the 1650-yard freestyle, and her class mate Adelyn Graf, swam a 6th place finish in the 200-yard backstroke. Fellow freshman Elizabeth Malone tallied the top finish for St. Bonaventure, coming in 2nd in the 200-yard butterfly.
“Overall I think it went really well, we had some good swims.” Haberman said. “Some people didn’t do as well as they had wanted to, but the team was solid. It was a good assessment to see where we stand in terms of A-10 finals.”
With only 71 days remaining until the A-10 Conference Finals at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio, the second semester will take on a different look in terms of preparation and training for the girls, according to Johnson.
“The first half of the year is mostly amount working to build a good base,” Johnson said. “The second semester you want to focus more on speed workouts and resting up for that final meet.”
Haberman said she and her teammates are well aware of the season’s impending conclusion.
“At this point, we’re counting down the days,” Haberman said. “It’s really starting to get exciting”.
