By Andrew Lichtenauer
Contributing Writer
Matthew Segar ’12 led the Bison in the pool on Saturday with two individual wins in the men’s swimming and diving team’s first home meet of the season. The Orange and Blue defeated American 208-76 and Lafayette 207-77 but lost to defending Patriot League Champion Navy 186-101.
Segar had two of the team’s three individual victories, winning both the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle. He clocked in season-best times of 1:42.20 and 4:47.96, respectively.
“Navy has always been the top team to beat in the league, and all week my coach stressed that good teams race hard regardless of the competition. I just got really excited to swim them and wanted to see what I could do,” Segar said.
Captain Michael Volpe ’11 locked up the Bison’s third individual victory in the 100-fly, finishing with a season-best time of 51.82. Volpe beat out teammate and runner-up Taylor Harris ’12 in this race by more than a second.
“Being at home definitely had a huge impact on our performance. We didn’t have a bus ride to worry about or have to get used to a different pool,” Volpe said. “We had home ‘field’ advantage and used that to our benefit. Having parents and friends in the stands being loud was also a great contribution to our excitement,” he said.
The Bison’s fourth win came in the 200 free relay, where Harris, Christian Treat ’13, Bryce Suchomel ’13 and Eric Sokolosky ’12 took first place for the Orange and Blue, beating runner-up American by more than 2.5 seconds.
As the men look ahead to Patriot League championships in February, they have used their first few meets to determine expectations and goals for the rest of the season.
“The first few meets of the season are used as stepping stones for Patriot Leagues,” Volpe said. “As training gets more intense, we use early meets as a gauge of where we are and how we are progressing toward our goals for the end of the season. These meets give us a way to measure against where we were last year and at previous meets and see how much we’ve improved.”
The Orange and Blue will be back in the pool to host Colgate at 1 p.m. Saturday in Kinney Natatorium.