Niagara
UB Simming and Diving Sweep Niagara in Dual Meet
1/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Swimming and Diving
NIAGARA, NY- UB men's and swimming and diving came away victorious in their first meet of the year. The women's team defeated Niagara 139-92, while men's team came away with a 130-104 victory. Overall, both teams combined for 49 top-three finishes.
The meet started off well for the Bulls by sweeping the podium in the women's 200 yard medley relay. Mallory Buha, Cristina Czyrka, Megan Burns, and Maddy Jacumski led the way with a time of 1:51.40. The men took first, third, and fourth in their 200 yard medley relay. Kerry Giovanniello, Victoria Butler, and Jessica Powers finished first through third, respectively, with Giovanniello and Butler swimming the event under 11 minutes.
Reid Zyniecki won the first of two events with a time of 9:46.48. In his first 100 yard breaststroke race of the year, he won the event in a time of 58.64. Bill Caffee finished third place in the event with a time of 1:01.66.
Across both 200 yard freestyle events the Bulls finished five swimmers across the top-three places combined. Catherine Shultheis and Eve Kosten finished first and second in the women's 200 yard freestyle, while Billy Patrum, Mason Miller, and Aaron Durrence swept the top-three places.
The Bulls strong start continued with Maddy Jacumski winning the women's 50 yard freestyle in a time of 25.13, and Brittney Walters and Kelli Ann Valedon impressing with times of 2:14.36 and 2:17.49 to finish first and second.
Burns and Itai De La Vega won their respective 100 yard butterfly races. De La Vega led three Bulls who finished in the top-three with a time of 51.75. Burns finished the race in 58.26 was joined by Sarah Baxter who finished third in a time of 1:00.07. These two events spurned the Bulls to finish first in the remaining swimming events of the meet.
In diving the Bulls hit eight season-best marks. In the three meter dive Abbey Croce and Elizabeth Gideon dove to season-best scores of 278.63 and 169.88, respectively, while Kristian Santos and Dan Roche earned season-high scores of 316.13 and 318.60. The one meter dive saw Kelly Moran (220.88), Mackenzie Moss (259.20), Nick Rodriguez (338.10), and Gideon (166.95) hit season-best marks.
Overall, the meet was an impressive showing of the Bulls training paying off as they work towards the MAC Championships in late February and early March. The men's swimming and diving team will be back in action on Saturday when they face Miami (OH) in their first MAC meet of the season. Saturday's meet will begin at 1pm in Alumni Arena Natatorium.
The women's swimming and diving team's next meet is at home on Janury 23rd against Ohio at 1 p.m. This will be the Bulls' third of four MAC meet of the season with their current conference record at 1-1.
