This weekend the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams swam a critical meet against Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association rival, Union College. Both teams entered the meet optimistic, and wound up swimming a very strong meet.
Going into the contest the women felt it would be closely contested, but they wound up dominating the meet and won by a score of 123-104. UR took control from the start and locked up the victory at 123-77 with two events still left to swim. This meant that the last two events were exhibitions and the points were only given to Union.
Solid performances were in abundance against Union, but a few individual event winners stand out. Senior Kristin Broderick was a winner in the 200 individual medley and the 200 backstroke. Junior Tiffany Siu also picked up two individual event wins with her performances in the 200 freestyle and 200 butterfly. Siu and Broderick brought their win totals to three each, when they placed first the 400 medley relay.
Freshman Erin Szajta also picked up two first place finishes, one in the 50 freestyle and the other as a part of the 400 freestyle relay. “It was great to see Erin pick up her first win in an individual collegiate event. It a really nice suprise, for Erin and myself,” said head coach Julie Benker-O’Brien.
The performance against Union sets the women up nicely for a highly successful semester. The women are expected to compete for first with Hamilton College at the UCAA championship meet, held Dec. 6 and 7.
The men were not as fortunate as the women. The Union men’s team is very strong in the freestyle, as apparent by their first and second place finishes in all six of the freestyle events. In a meet with only 13 events, it is virtually impossible to win against a team with that kind of dominance.
The men started off well, winning the 400 medley relay, but soon after, Union’s dominance was felt. The men’s only other first place finish was obtained by Mark Radloff in the 200 breaststroke. UR simply could not contend with Union’s firepower and lost 130-95.
The next meet for both teams will be away against area rival, Nazareth College, Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1 p.m.
