UR women’s swimmers and divers fought to the bitter end in a 122-121 loss to SUNY Geneseo, winner of 14 consecutive State University Athletic Conference Championships.
“They swam with a lot of energy, and fought till the very end,” Head Coach Danielle Herring said. “We outperformed our expectations and kept the meet very close. If we can execute like we did against Geneseo in every meet, we will be a very tough team to beat.”
The Yellowjackets swam their best meet of the season, highlighted by 19 personal best times. Sophomore Kari Joyce took first in both the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke.
“I swam very well for this point in the season,” Joyce said. “We could spend our time analyzing how we could have gotten one more point, but we know that we swam our best, and we should be proud.”
Sophomore Karen Gromer finished first in the 200-yard butterfly, nearly setting a pool record, and freshman Denise Moseman finished first in the 200-yard breaststroke.
“It was a really tough race,” Moseman said. “I could see it was close at each turn, so I just put my head down and swam my heart out.”
After the first break, the women were down by 21 points.
“They were never down, and they never let themselves think that they were out of the meet,” Herring said.
The women got a huge push, thanks to some very strong performances in the 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard breaststroke.
The Yellowjackets outscored Geneseo by a strong margin in each of these events. However, without a strong performance from the diving team, the women would not have been able to keep the meet so close. Sophomore Patricia McHale won both the one and three-meter events, with a career best in each.
“All of the divers did really awesome,” McHale said. “There was a great deal of pressure for diving to perform because the points would really matter.”
“McHale did an outstanding job,” newly hired diving coach Greg Brandes said. “She missed Geneseo’s pool record by less than 10 points. All of our divers have worked very hard this year. They are learning new, tricky dives to add to their already dangerous arsenal. Expect big things from them in the future.”
“The most important thing I saw from this meet is that we never gave up,” Herring said. “Things did not always look great for us, but we always fought it out. If we can continue to execute swims like we did against Geneseo, then we will continue to improve as we continue to train. We need to keep our mental intensity up.”
Nissan can be reached at dnissan@campustimes.org.
