By Ryan Signorino
Staff Writer
The St. Bonaventure University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams traveled to Florida over winter break for training before coming back and competing against Binghamton on Saturday.
The women won 165-131 and lost only four events at the meet. The men lost 166.5-133.5, although senior individual medley swimmer Michael White won all three individual events he swam.
Junior freestyler Ben Galinski called the training trip the epitome of conditioning. He said that although a lot of work, it was nice to train outside in a warmer climate.
“Each day we would swim for either two two-hour sessions or one three-hour session, and, in addition, we would either lift or do a dry-land circuit,” said Galinski. “The day before we left, we did a challenge set of 100×100’s and then had the rest of the day free, and many of us went to the beach to relax.”
Women’s head coach Brian Thomas said the training trip was a good chance to isolate what the team needed to work on.
“It also allows us to use facilities we don’t necessarily have here on campus and to get some long-course training in, which we specifically don’t have here on campus,” said Thomas.
After training for 11 days in Florida, the teams traveled back to campus last Thursday, had practice Friday and then traveled to Binghamton for the meet.
Thomas said the team did well, despite showing some signs of wear and tear due to travelling so much.
“I wouldn’t say it had any kind of negative impact on us on Saturday,” said Thomas. “With the timing of the season, regardless of whether we’re training here at home or training in Florida, the challenge was to be able to get up, race, put together good efforts and race at a high level, even though we were tired.”
Freshman freestyler Joe Malafronte said the physical wear of the training trip didn’t affect the team as much as the mental fatigue.
“It was more of a mental thing that the team needed to work through,” said Malafronte. “The trip only made us better for the rest of the season, and hopefully Binghamton will do the same.”
Galinski agreed with Malafronte that mental strength affected the team to a larger degree.
“We were pretty broken down, as we have practiced every single day for quite a while, but I think that some teammates let that get to their heads and convinced themselves that they were unable to get up and race,” said Galinski.
Binghamton was both teams’ first meet since the Akron Zippy Invite on Dec. 4. Thomas said that coaches never know what to expect in the first dual meet back after break.
“It can really swing either way, sometimes you’ll have phenomenal performances, and sometimes the swimmers are really beat-down and buried from the training that they were doing,” said Thomas. “I was happy with how they performed. It is good to win.”
Freshman freestyler Taylor Gnan said the team came together to overcome how tired it had been after training in Florida, and that enabled it to win against Binghamton.
“Everyone on the team works very hard, and experiencing so much training can get to some people,” said Gnan. “But we didn’t let it affect us, and that showed at our meet.”
The swimmers’ next meet is today at the Reilly Center against Cornell.
Thomas said Cornell is a strong opponent, and it will really test out the top girls on the team.
“This year, they’re a great challenge for us. Coming into our place, you never know what could happen,” said Thomas. “We have a distinct advantage by swimming at home, and for our top-end swimmers, the girls you see getting the wins for us on a weekly basis, it will be a great challenge for them.”
Galinski said the team needs to make sure they work on its mental strength this week.
“This past meet against Binghamton, we saw an overwhelming amount of individuals who were afraid that they were too tired to race or that their best was not good enough,” said Galinski. “We need to come together and realize that we have the talent and training to overcome most teams. We simply need to be fearless and prove it.”
signorra15@bonaventure.edu
