By Zach Waltz
Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s swimming and diving team heads to Pittsburgh today through Sunday for the Pitt Invite after beating Canisius on senior day last Saturday, 129-112.
Head Coach Sean McNamee said the invite will be full of solid competition, including Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, with six teams total.
“It’s the second year that we’ve gone down,” McNamee said. “It’s a nice opportunity for us to get down there and race in a college championship format, which is the goal of the meet. We’re actually going to train through it, so we’re not expecting any time drops. Last year worked pretty well in a sense that we swam really well in a quality facility against some good competition.”
Senior backstroker and freestyler Jimmy Martin said the Bonnies are aiming for good times since they’ll be training while they are at the meet.
“We’ve been stepping it up a lot this week, so we’re a little broken down,” Martin said. “But we’re training through it, and hopefully, we can come together and get some really good swimming in.”
Martin was named Atlantic 10 Men’s Swimming and Diving Performer of the Week this week, his second time earning the honor this year. Martin’s first performer of the Week came after his performance in the meet against Pittsburgh on Oct. 19. He had two first place finishes in the 200-yard and 100-yard freestyle and was also a part of the 200-yard freestyle relay that set a new pool record in the meet against Canisius.
McNamee said he was impressed with the new pool record time of 1:23.30, but hopefully that’s not the ceiling for the swimmers.
“It was an extremely fast time for this time of the year,” McNamee said.
Martin said he was honored to receive the accolade, but was quick to stress the importance of the team to his success.
“It just shows the work we’ve been putting in lately,” Martin said. “We’ve got a lot of good freshmen and have been training a lot of sprints, so it’s good to see it’s been paying off so far.”
The home meet was senior day for the Bonnies, which brings out the best swims in everyone, according to Martin. He said his senior day was highlighted by getting recognized for his time on the team.
“It was a great experience to get announced in front of everyone,” Martin said. “The support from my teammates and fans was overwhelming.”
McNamee said the early senior day is tough for the senior swimmers, but they have another home meet later in the season.
“It’s always a little difficult having your senior meet so early in the season,” McNamee said.
McNamee said Canisius gave the Bonnies a competitive meet, but the Bonnies had a stronger showing in the pool.
“Canisius is a vastly improving team,” McNamee said. “It’s really nice to see some more competitive teams in the region. We had a few key swimmers that were out of the water, but nonetheless, we showed a few areas that we were pretty strong in.”
