Swimming and diving sweeps St. Bonaventure

Men win 148-95, women win 121-120.

Johnny Yang sports intern

The Binghamton swimming and diving teams hosted St. Bonaventure for a dual meet on Saturday afternoon. The Bearcats swept the Bonnies despite the women’s side falling behind.

They staged a late comeback and squeezed out a 121-120 victory, while the men’s team secured a comfortable 14895 win.

“I thought it was a great day,” said Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey. “Coming off our training trip, you never know how you’re going to compete and how you’re going to respond … I thought we’ve had a great week here coming back and being productive.”

In the men’s competitions, there were three double winners.

Sophomore Eli Lanfear took first place in both the 50 free and the 100 fly with times of 21.25 and 50.08, respectively.

Additionally, Lanfear earned first in the 200 medley relay with senior Ryan Maierle and juniors Lewis Lin and Jake Vecchio. They finished the race 1:32.50. Freshman Liam Preston captured the gold in the 1000 free with a time of 9:29.09 and 500 free with a time of 4:34.10. In addition, junior Henry Shemet took first in the 200 IM and the 100 free, clocking in at 1:54.34 and 47.46, respectively.

“I think [Preston] had an amazing day times-wise, just racing at this point in the year,” Cummiskey said. “Overall, it was a great team effort.”

Other individual winners included junior Liam Murphy in the 200 free (1:42.84) and Lin in the 100 breast (58.92).

Additionally, BU took first place in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:25.12, which included Preston, Shemet, Murphy and Maierle.

“We’re at the point in the season where we’re really getting up there in volume,” Cummiskey said. “They’re all in the best shape of their season and swimming fast and ready to go.”

On the women’s side, the meet was decided during the final two individual swimming events — the 500 free and the 100 breast.

Sophomore Alexandra Switalski, along with juniors Marley Zimmerman and Skylar Ward, captured the top three places in the 500 free with times of 5:21.54, 5:22.69 and 5:29.61, respectively. Then, Binghamton would go on to secure the top two places in the 100 breast, courtesy of junior Courtney Moane and sophomore Lauren Kuzma, with times of 1:06.65 and

Freshman Liam Preston earned first-place finishes in two events during BU’s win against St.

1:07.15, respectively.

“We knew it was going to be a close meet right down til the end, that’s kind of how we put our lineup together,” Cummiskey said. “They competed, did what they had to do and they fought for it.”

Moane was also a member of the first-place 200 medley relay with a winning time of

1:45.27, which consisted of freshmen Olivia Philbrick and Maria Pignatelli as well as junior Molly Greeley.

In the diving events on the women’s side, the Bearcats swept the Bonnies. Junior Lindsey Weissman captured the one-meter event with a final score 2:06.03 and freshman Elizabeth Tirado took first in the three-meter event with a score of 2:19.75. Senior Ryan Cohn took second in both diving events on the men’s side.

“This is our last week or two of really getting after it and putting the work in before we start cutting down for champs,” Cummiskey said. “We’ll be ready to go for provided by jonathan cohen next week and hopefully have some more energy for senior day and have a good day.”

Binghamton will host Marist in its annual senior day meet on Saturday, Jan. 28. First race is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the Patricia A. Saunders Aquatic Center in Vestal, New York.