Photo: St. Bonaventure Athletics
BY: SAMUEL WEILERT, STAFF WRITER
The St. Bonaventure men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will travel to Cleveland, Ohio this weekend to compete in the Magnus Cup Invitational. The Invitational will last from Nov. 21 to 23 and will feature over 10 teams from the Northeastern Region of the United States.
Sophomore swimmer Anna Bojana Forjan said she is excited to compete.
“It’s our biggest meet this year before the A-10s and it’s an important way to measure where we are at for the season,” said Forjan.
Freshman swimmer Phoebe McClaren, who last week won Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week honors, also expressed excitement for the Cup.
“It should be fun since there are more events than there are in dual meets so we can do more than we’re used to,” said McClaren.
This is the second invitational of the year for the Bonnies, with the team partaking in the Colgate Invitational that took place the weekend of Oct. 11-12. In that meet, the Bonaventure men’s team took the gold medal while the women’s team managed to take silver.
“We had really good energy there,” said McClaren. “Our energy played a huge part in our team’s positive morale”
Junior diver Ben O’Neill secured the silver medal in the 1-Meter Dive and the bronze in the 3-Meter Dive at the meet.
“Getting that win felt great,” said O’Neill. “It’s great to reassure yourself with that type of performance at a big meet like that with more pressure than a normal dual meet.”\
Senior swimmer Halle Myers helped lead the charge for the women’s team at the meet, coming in first in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 100 fly. She was and also a contributing part in both the 1st place 400 Medley and Free Relays.
“The fact that we got second is impressive considering who we were missing,” said Myers. “If we can stay focused and work on getting that medal mentality, we can hopefully repeat that at Magnus.”
Forjan detailed how new additions, such as the large freshman class and former Olympian head diving coach Alejandra Fuentes have improved the team this year.
“Our new coach Ale is an Olympian, so she is really helpful for the diving team,” Forjan said. “My class last year was really small, but these freshmen that came in this year are all really good.”
O’Neill detailed the freshman making an impact on the men’s team.
“It’s super cool to see all the freshmen making an impact for us, like Mark Mizsei, Mark Cattron, Quinn Borchers and Will Parker,” O’Neill said.
Myers also complimented the success of the team’s rookie class.
“The fact that these freshmen have been able to get onto relays and push the upperclassmen in practice and be competitive against them is a great thing, they’re going to make a good impact these next four years,” said Myers.
When it comes to the Magnus Cup, the team was confident that the Bonnies were going to be able to find success there.
“Our men divers are easily top three in the conference on both boards, so they have very promising point-scoring potential,” said Myers.
O’Neill explained how chasing gold at the invite will be a full team effort.
“We have a lot of guys that float under the radar as people who will get points and play a huge part for our team, we’ll get more points in the B Finals than people expect us to,” said O’Neill.
Forjan expressed why she thinks the team will find even more success at this meet than at previous meets, detailing the extra recovery their bodies will be able to have.
“This is the first meet where we’ve had time to taper so hopefully it will help us be well rested,” Forjan said.
Phoebe McClaren said she is very excited for the invitational
“I hope this weekend we’ll be really positive and have lots of fun,” said McClaren. “I’m just excited to win, excited to race, it should be fun.”
After this weekend’s Magnus Cup, both the men’s and women’s teams will participate in three more dual meets, followed by the Cavalier Invitational, and then closing out the season with the aforementioned Atlantic 10 Championships.
weiler24@bonaventure.edu
