Photo: St. Bonaventure Athletics
BY NATHAN DONNELLY, SPORTS WRITER
The St. Bonaventure men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams traveled to Pittsburgh this past weekend to face off against PSAC school Clarion and familiar foe Duquesne.
The women’s team won in lopsided fashion against Clarion 209-52; however, they failed to defeat the Dukes with a loss of 162-100.
Junior swimmer Halle Meyers set a pool record at Duquesne’s Towers Pool with a finish of 23.48 in the 50-freestyle, and she also had a second-place finish of 55.94 in the 100-butterfly. Halle Meyers was also on the victorious 200-freestyle relay team, which hit the final wall after 1:37.77 seconds.
Junior swimmer Silvana Cabrera placed first in the 100-IM with a 58.29 (a personal best), and a time of 2:01.97 netted her a second-place finish in the 200-Fly.
Freshman swimmer Anna Bojana Forján finished with a time of 56.21 in the 100 backstroke and 2:01.43 in the 200, good for finishes of first and second, respectively.
“My teammates give me a stable and supportive environment which is very helpful to bring out the best of me,” said Forján. “My coaches believe in me, and their goal-oriented attitude motivates me to do everything to be the best. So, I’m glad that I chose St. Bonaventure’s swimming and diving team.”
The men’s teams partook in an exhibition competition, and graduate student swimmer Tanner Falls set pool records in the 100- and 200-freestyles with times of 45.85 and 1:40.67.
“I was able to break the records because of the coaching staff and their deliberate season planning,” said Falls. “We are a couple of weeks out from A-10s, but the reduced volume of our training has resulted in most of the team feeling much better and swimming the times they know they are capable of.”
“In this season everyone developed a lot and got better than last year,” said Forján. “We put in a lot of hard work to get better. The previous meets gave the coaches and us positive feedback that we are on a good track to be in the best shape for conference championships.”
Falls looks ahead to the team’s future goals in hopes of better results in the Atlantic-10 Championships.
“The team is striving to improve upon last year’s sixth-place finish as we have a lot more depth than in the past,” said Tanner Falls. “We finished up training trip and have set our focus mainly on A10s and making sure everybody is at their peak during that meet.”
With the swimming and diving teams completing their final matches, up next are the A-10 Championships. They will take place Feb. 21-24 at the Hampton Virginia AquaComplex in Hampton, Virginia., but all events will also be streamed live on ESPN+.
donnelnp23@bonaventure.edu
