This past Saturday, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams took on the Golden Eagles of SUNY Brockport in UR’s first home meet. Both teams had dominating victories over Brockport, with the men prevailing 137-88 and the women winning 135-66. With the victories the men moved to 1-1 on the season and the women remained undefeated at 2-0.
Going into the meet the teams were confident that they could beat Brockport, but their focus for the meet was not on times, but rather on the fundamentals and technique. Much of the meet placed swimmers in off events ? events which they do not specialize ? in order to see where the strengths of the team lie. UR will be using their first few meets to build competitive experience and to determine the season’s line-up.
Although times were not the focus, there were standout performances for both the men and women. On the men’s team it was sophomore distance swimmer, Alex Blakeney. Blakeney recorded a lifetime best in the 1000 freestyle with a time 12:05.09. “Alex shaved five seconds off of his previous best and earned fifth place in the event. He also had a motivational swim in the 500 free, in which he earned fourth place in a time of 5:54.65,” Benker said. For the women, it was senior captain, Christina de Vries who had a great meet. She was a winner in both the 500 and 200 free with times of 5:46.18 and 2:07.35 respectively. “Christina has worked really hard for four years and this meet was a sign of how much she has substantially improved,” Benker said.
The meet showed much improvement from their first meet. “Swimming at home definitely helped us, and I was pleased with the team’s support of each other and their focus throughout the meet,” said Benker. Focus was necessary, because it was evident soon after the start of the meet that the Yellowjackets were going to beat Brockport. Last week the teams had problems, much of which can be attributed to their inexperience. The teams are young ? especially the women who have 13 new freshman ? so getting the first meet out of the way was important. This weekend UR will participate in the Harvest Relays at home. This meet is another good chance for the team to compete and figure out line-ups.
