By Ryan Signorino
Staff Writer
With day one of the 2017 Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships in the books, the St. Bonaventure University men’s team sits in a tie for first place along with Saint Louis with 66 points each. The women occupy seventh place with 53 points.
The day began with women’s one-meter diving prelims, featuring freshman Izzy Aguilera, sophomore Brittany Hart and freshman Elena Rohr. The top eight divers advanced to the finals in the afternoon. Rohr finished with 233.55, which was good for eighth place, and Hart was right behind her with 224.15, although she did not qualify for the finals. Aguilera took 17th out of the 26 divers with a score of 185.90.
In the finals, Rohr finished eighth with a score of 228.60. In the consolation finals, Hart finished 11th with a score of 220.80 to add a few points to the women’s scores.
The day also featured two relays. First was the 200-medley relay, in which the team of freshman Theresa Hutton, junior Alyssa Levac, junior Devon McFadden and sophomore Sam Kuchinski took ninth place with a time of 1:44.05.
The men’s team placed second to George Washington University thanks to the relay team of junior Matt Taccard, senior Preston Schilling, senior Michael White and freshman David Shakhnazarov with a time of 1:29.12.
The other relay was the 800-freestyle medley, in which the women swam to another ninth-place finish with a time of 7:32.52. The relay consisted of senior Bridget Jordan, sophomore Rachel Taylor, senior Maggie Woods and Hutton.
The men finished third with a team of freshman Nick Burdo, White, Shakhnazarov and senior Jack Hughes with a time of 6:32.10.
Day two consists of prelims for the 500-freestyle, 200-individual medley and 50-freestyle at 10:00 a.m., men’s 1-meter diving prelims at 1:00 p.m. and finals of the four events as well as the 200-freestyle relay beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Michael White holds the top seed in the men’s 200-individual medley and swam the fastest time in the A-10 this year in the event. McFadden has the fourth seed in the women’s race. Sophomore diver Ryan McLaughlin is also seeded sixth for the one-meter, and freshman Austin Childs is seeded tenth.
signorra15@bonaventure.edu
