Cooper Mead
Writer
The men’s swimming and diving team traveled to Connecticut to face UConn and Fordham with high hopes of beating UConn in only their second meeting of all time and continuing their strong record against Fordham (8-4 all-time). Mike Nicholson ’14 and Ben Seketa ’15 led the Bison in their first meet of the season, as Nicholson was the only two event winner. He won the 200-yard butterfly by 2.47 seconds and the 200 individual medley by 1.92 seconds. Seketa finished first in the 200 breast stroke, was runner-up in the 100 breast stroke and finished fourth in the 200 individual medley.
The Bison also recorded second-place finishes in the 200 medley relay and 400 free relays. Cameron James ’16 and Trevor Reitz ’14 finished second in the 200 free and 100 free, respectively. These performances were enough to propel the Bison to a 179-120 win over Fordham, but fell short of UConn, losing 175-125.
Jon Jones ’15 was the top diver for the Bison off of the one-meter board, tallying a score of 220.20, six points below his career high. This placed him third overall.
“We had a lot of people step up–especially late in the meet–that helped drive us past Fordham and closer to UConn. Losing to UConn was tough, but it will help us grow into the team we need to be to succeed later in the season,” Reitz said.
The women’s swimming and diving team also traveled to UConn as Emma Levendoski ’16 led the team and posted a new program top-10 mark in the 100-yard backstroke. Lauren Perry ’15 and Elizabeth Porcellio ’13 also tallied victories for the Bison in the 200 free and 200 individual medley, respectively. Despite such efforts, the Bison were defeated by UConn 186.5-113.5, and Fordham by a margin of 173.5-126.5.
Levendoski also finished second in the 200 backstroke with a time of 58.24, placing her at eighth in program history. Her time puts her as the second active Bison swimmer on the list along with Jennifer Brennan ’14.
Perry also had a strong performance, placing third in the 50 free and fourth in the 100 free. She was a member of the 200 medley relay and the 400 free relay, which placed third. Similarly, Porcellio also placed third in the 100 fly and came in sixth place in the 200 free.
Tori Molchany ’15 and Tara Boyle ’15 were the Orange and Blue’s best divers for the day, coming in third off of the one-meter board and fourth off of the three-meter board, respectively.
“I was pleased with our overall performance at the meet,” head coach Dan Schinnerer said [Bucknell Women’s Swimming and Diving Outscored by UConn and Fordham, bucknellbison.com, Oct. 20, 2012]. “Our main emphasis at this point in the season is to see improvement from meet-to-meet and we saw a lot of progress today compared to where we were against UMBC a few weeks ago. That said, we have to make a significant improvement to get to where we ultimately want to be as a team.”
Both the women’s and the men’s squads will have one week off before they travel to Easton, Pa. to compete against American, Lafayette and Navy on Nov. 3.
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