By Zachary Waltz
Staff Writer
he men’s swimming and diving team defeated the Niagara Purple Eagles last week, 147-72. The team is set to face the Buffalo Bulls tomorrow at Buffalo.
Coach Sean McNamee expressed his excitement for the meet at Buffalo.
“We’re looking forward to the meet this weekend up at UB,” McNamee said. “It is our final dual meet before our final preparations for the Atlantic 10s.”
Senior freestyler and backstroker David Erickson said Buffalo will put up a good fight in the water tomorrow, but he still thinks the Bonnies will win.
“The meet against UB should be really good,” Erickson said. “They’re a very strong team, and they always show up and perform really well, but I like the way our team looks this year. We should give them a good run. It will also be a good indicator of where everybody is at.”
Senior freestyler and butterflyer Nathan Destree said he expects everyone to perform well at Buffalo tomorrow.
“This weekend we should have a little bit more snappy times,” Destree said. “It is a great facility there with good blocks, so everyone should have good swims.”
Coach McNamee said the Niagara meet acted as a chance for everyone to swim their third-best events.
“Those are events that they usually don’t get to swim in a dual-meet scenario, so the meet served a very valuable purpose,” McNamee said. “It also gave us the ability to get our new swimmers in some events.”
Destree said the team is right where it needs to be coming off its win against Niagara.
“Niagara went all right,” Destree said. “Everyone had good swims for where we’re at in the season.”
Erickson said the Niagara meet will help the team in its preparation for the A-10s because it shows the swimmers’ strengths and weaknesses.
“The team swam pretty well,” Erickson said. “Everybody, for the most part, had good performances. It was a nice tune-up. We were just trying to get some people in certain events so we could see how we stack up at A-10s. We really saw what our strong areas and weak areas are so we can use that to our advantage.”
Erickson also said the team will begin its training taper after the Buffalo meet to prepare for the A-10s.
“We will be practicing for about the same amount of time, but we’re definitely going to go less as far as yards are concerned. The intensity will stay the same but we’re going to get more rest over the next couple of weeks.”
