By Ryan Signorino
Staff Writer
After two days of competition at the Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships, the St. Bonaventure University swimming and diving teams sit in fifth place for the men with 152 points and tenth place for the women with 76 points.
Eight Bonnies made it to finals after prelims in the morning in the 500-freestyle, 200-individual medley, 50-freestyle and men’s one-meter diving. The night was highlighted by senior Michael White’s first-place finish in the men’s 200-individual medley with a time of 1:47.30, a school record.
Also performing well for the Bonnies was freshman Austin Childs, who finished fifth in men’s one-meter diving with a score of 263.55 after being seeded tenth in the field of 17 divers. Sophomore Ryan McLaughlin finished thirteenth overall with a score of 224.15.
Other swimmers who swam in finals were junior Devon McFadden who finished eighth in the women’s 200-individual medley with a time of 2:03.48 after setting a school record in the preliminaries, and junior Ben Galinski, who finished fourteenth in the men’s 500-freestyle consolation final with a time of 4:35.00.
Competing in the consolation finals of the men’s 200-individual medley were senior Preston Schilling, who finished in overall twelfth place with a time of 1:50.52, and senior Matt Goettler, who finished fifteenth with a time of 1:51.84.
Three swimmers competed in the men’s 50-freestyle consolation finals for the Bonnies. Junior Jordan Powers took twelfth with a time of 20.88, junior Matt Taccard came fifteenth at 21.04 and sophomore Robert Marshall came in sixteenth at 21.08.
The final event of the night was the 200-freestyle relay. The men’s team, consisting of Marshall, freshman David Shakhnazarov, Powers and Taccard, finished fourth, just 0.04 seconds off the podium, with a time of 1:21.27. The women’s team of McFadden, freshman Theresa Hutton, sophomore Rachel Taylor and sophomore Sam Kuchinski finished eleventh at 1:35.84.
The third day of the meet begins with prelims at 10:00 a.m. for the 400-individual medley, 100-butterfly, 200-freestyle, 100-breaststroke and 100-backstroke. Prelims for women’s three-meter diving begin at 1:00 p.m. The finals for those events start at 6:30 p.m., as well as for the 400-medley relay.
McFadden holds the seventh seed in the women’s 400-individual medley and the fourth seed in the women’s 100-backstroke, and White has the sixth seed for the men’s 400-individual medley. In the women’s 100-breaststroke, junior Alyssa Levac and junior Maria Rocchi hold the top two seeds, and Goettler has the ninth seed in the men’s.
In the 400-medley relay, the women’s team is seeded fourth, and the men’s team is seeded fifth.
signorra15@bonaventure.edu
