Courtesy of Campus Times
On Saturday, Jan. 19, the UR men’s and women’s swim teams opened their spring season in an away meet against the Ithaca Bombers. Both teams swam hard, but in the end the Yellowjackets fell short to their tough competitors — a 196-104 defeat for the women and a 217-77 defeat for the men.
On the women’s side, sophomore Lauren Bailey had a strong day. She brought in the ladyjacket’s first individual win by claiming the 200 free with a time of 1:58.65 and out-swimming Ithaca’s second place competitor, junior Elizabeth Gawrys, who touched the wall with a time of 2:00.07. Later in the meet, Bailey captured her second individual win in the 100 butterfly, defeating her closest competitor by over two seconds.
Other strong women’s performers included freshman Vicky Luan and senior Stephanie Bolin. Luan claimed two victories of her own in the sprint freestyle events while Bolin earned an individual victory in the 200 fly.
Luan’s first victory came in the 50 free, where she racked in a time of 24.03, and outswam her nearest competition by over 1.5 seconds, a huge margin in a sprint event. She then went on to claim her second win in the 100 free with a time of 53.79, defeating second place bomber Gawrys by over two seconds. Bolin brought home one more individual win, earning her victory in the 200 fly with a time of 2:15.49.
On the men’s side, UR’s sophomore Brian Wong truly shined, claiming two individual wins in the fly events and a runner-up performance in the 200 IM.
Wong’s first win came early on in the meet for the 200yrd butterfly where he flew past the competition and touched the wall in a speedy time of 1:56.75, defeating the nearest bomber by over three seconds. In the 100 fly, Wong had an equally impressive performance, claiming the win with a time of 51.89.
However, Wong’s most exciting race of the day was the 200 IM. Here he swam neck and neck against Ithaca’s sophomore Logan Metzger. In the end, Metzger out-touched Wong by a mere 0.18 seconds, claiming the victory and leaving Wong in second place.
Other strong male competitors of the meet include sophomore Chris Doser, sophomore Pat Davis, and sophomore James Frauen.
All three of these Yellowjackets earned a second place finish: Doser in the 200 free with a time of 1:45.98, Davis in the 100 breast with a time of 1:00.91, and Frauen in the 200 back with a time of 1:58.70.
With the women’s solid overall record of 7-3 and the men’s 5-5, both Yellowjacket teams hope to improve upon this defeat and earn their first victory of the spring semester in their away meet on Friday against SUNY Cortland.
Cozen is a member of the class of 2015.
