UR’s men’s swimming and diving had an exciting weekend of competition. The team swam two meets back-to-back this weekend, first on Friday afternoon against St. Lawrence and then Saturday against Union College. Rochester beat St. Lawrence University 144-83.
“Our guys are getting faster and faster every meet,” Head Coach Danielle Herring said. “Every time we race, we are a little better off the block, a little stronger off the walls and a little closer to the goals we set at the beginning of the season. If we continue to improve like we have, we will do great things.”
Thanks to an all-around performance, Rochester beat a team which was originally favored to win.
Sophomore Zach Freed and senior Pete Maxwell both won two events, and each was on the winning 200 free relay. Freed won the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley. Maxwell won the 50-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle, an unusual combination of both speed and endurance. Senior Alex Provan touched the wall first in the 100-yard breastroke.
Freshman Nick Stadnyk had put forth an outstanding performance on Friday, with significant time drops in both the 200 and the 100-yard freestyle.
“This is a good example of what we want to do for the rest of the season,” Herring said. “If we can continue to drop time when we swim tired and untapered, I know we can do great things.”
Rochester had a second meet on Saturday against a well-rested Union. Union won by the close margin of 137-105. Even though Rochester was tired from their meet the previous day, they swam with heart.
“Our second meet really showed what we can do,” Herring said. “We were all tired, and no one swam under the greatest of conditions, but we still swam a great meet.”
Rochester started it off by just out-touching Union in the 400-yard medley relay.
“We fought all day to move up in points,” Herring said. “We weren’t going to give them an inch.”
Freed won both the 400-yard individual medley and the 500-yard free. Sophomore Craig Matt out-touched his opposition in the 200-yard butterfly. Matt also swam for second in the 1,000-yard freestyle.
“It was one of the most impressive swims of the season,” Herring said. “It was extremely close until the bitter end.”
The diving team also had outstanding performances. Junior Ted Elton won all four events in which he competed. Freshman John Park made his dbut, and performed extremely well.
“I was really excited with the job we did out there,” Head Diving Coach Greg Brandes said. “[Elton] continues to get better and better, and I’m looking forward to see what [Park] can do. We did better than we did at Geneseo, and I know we will continue to improve.”
Nissan can be reached at dnissan@campustimes.org.
