Swimming and diving sweeps Marist on senior day

Webster achieves three individual victories

Aidan

Jennings

assistant sports editor

The Binghamton swimming and diving teams honored its 11 members of the 2023 graduating class on Saturday afternoon for senior day. The Bearcats hosted Marist in their final dual meet before the America East (AE) Championships. The hosts were able to achieve their most robust dual meet performance of the season, as the men overcame their opponents 186.5-113.5 and the women 195-105.

“I thought there was a lot of great things,” said Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey. “Our team responded, they came out ready to go and kind of set the tone early on. Going one-two on the women’s side in the medley relay, winning on the men’s side — it set us up for a good day.”

The standout performer in the women’s team performance was freshman Celia Webster, taking home three individual events in the 200 back (2:08.68), the 50 fly (27.38) and the 100 IM (1:03.05). She was joined in collecting gold by freshman Olivia Philbrick, who won the 50 back (27.79), as well as juniors Courtney Moane in the 50 breast (30.88) and Molly Greeley in the 50 free (25.30). The Bearcat quartet also took the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:48.91.

To round out the women’s bracket, junior

Maddie Hoover took the 200 free (1:57.89) and sophomore Lauren Kuzma was the victor in the 200 breast (2:25.36). Additionally, Greeley and Hoover joined freshman Maria Pignatelli and junior Marley Zimmerman in their 400-relay win, clocking a time of 3:42.11.

“I think we just had a lot of people contribute and it came together as probably our best team win in the four years that I’ve been here,” Cummiskey said. “Everyone contributed, we went 1-2-3 in five events, so excited to see some different people contributing and helping us get that win today.”

The men also finished their day with a plethora of wins, notably having two double-event winners in freshman Liam Preston and sophomore Elijah Lanfear. Preston grabbed the 200 free (1:40.25) and the 500 free (4:39.34), while Lanfear was the winner of the 50 free (21.14) and the 100 free (46.96). Other individual winners included juniors Lewis Lin in the 50 breast (26.92), Jake Vecchio in the 200 fly (1:53.77), Eric Kroon in the 200 breast (2:05.19) and Sandon Karinsky in the 50 fly (22.94). Freshman David Ponce completed Binghamton’s list of individual winners, taking the 100 back (1:53.93), as senior Ryan Cohn secured gold in the one-meter diving event with a score of 284.02.

The most significant win for the men, however, came in the very last event of the day, as Lanfear and Preston joined junior

Henry Shemet and senior Justin Meyn in the 400 free relay race. The four Bearcats achieved a time of 3:01.74, breaking the 14year standing pool record of 3:05.99 and capping off a successful home closer for Binghamton.

“That was certainly exciting,” Cummiskey said. “I think when you have the opportunity to swim fast and break a pool record and have that kind of goal there, they get excited to do that. I thought we had a chance. We tried to do it last year and just missed it. I wouldn’t have guessed we were five seconds under, but that was a great swim.”

The celebrations for BU began even before the first race, as 11 graduating Bearcats were honored on the team’s annual senior day. Among the senior honorees were Meyn, Cohn, Ryan Maierle, Matthew Palguta, Brandon Berger, Zachary Ciriaco, Jackson Homan, Annalise Pepper, Meadow Perez, Chloe Peterson and Alyssa Martin.

“It gives us a lot of confidence,” Meyn said. “We want to be at our best, especially the meet right before championships. So now we just grind it out for the next three weeks and get after it at champs and try to take that chip back.”

The Binghamton swimming and diving teams will take a month off before heading to the America East Conference Championships on Feb. 22 to close out the 2022-2023 season. First race is scheduled for 11 a.m. in Worcester, Massachusetts.