Photo Credit: Buffalo Athletics<\/p>\n
BUFFALO – The Buffalo swimming and diving teams raced to dominant victories over cross-town rival Canisius this afternoon, posting the fastest time and top diving score in every event contested en route to a sweep.<\/p>\n
The University at Buffalo, The State University of New York men’s and swimming and diving teams headed into winter break on a strong note by dominating cross-town rival Canisius on Thursday. Both the men’s and women’s teams won every event in the meet.<\/p>\n
“I was happy with the way they were able to step up today after a couple of weeks of really hard training as well as taking finals,” head coach Andy Bashor said. “They came in with a lot of excitement and energy to their races today. That was really great to see. I think we’ve done a really good job of capping off this first semester and build momentum into the second semester.”<\/p>\n
On the men’s side, Billy Patrum was a three-event winner. The Bulls junior won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:43.96; the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:55.29; and the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:45.68.<\/p>\n
Charles Barry was also a multiple event winner for the men. He won the 1,000 freestyle with a season-best time of 9:34.05 and he won the 200 backstroke in 1:53.25.<\/p>\n
Other individual winners on the men’s side were Matt Bitara (200 individual medley), Oliver Patrouch (100 freestyle) and Scott Huang (200 breaststroke).<\/p>\n
In the 50 freestyle event, Andrew Cole-Goins and Aaron Durrence tied for first with a time of 21.70.<\/p>\n
Jessica Powers led the women’s team with three individual wins. The senior distance swimmer won the 1,000 freestyle in 10:30.16; the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:56.40; and the 500 freestyle in 5:09.59.<\/p>\n
Megan Burns continued her domination of the 50 and 100 freestyles. The UB freshman has won every race this season in both events. Against Canisius, she won the 50 freestyle in a season-best 23.45 and the 100 free in 51.09, also a season best.<\/p>\n
Other individual winners on the women’s side were Spencer Rodriguez (200 individual medley), Brittney Walters (200 butterfly), Claudia Casale (200 backstroke) and Cristina Czyrka (200 breaststroke).<\/p>\n
In the relay events, the team of Emily Nelson, Holly Olsen, Taylor Steffl and Eve Kosten won the women’s 400 medley. Eric Jensen, Huang, Cole-Goins and Antonio Lanzi won the men’s 400 medley relay.<\/p>\n
The Bulls also swept the 400 freestyle relay. Saoirse Palu-Benson, Burns, Walters and Victoria Butler won the women’s 400 free relay. Durrence, Eric Forrester, Barry and Patrouch took the men’s 400 free relay.<\/p>\n
In the diving well, freshman Valerie Lortie won both the women’s one- and three-meter diving events with scores of 248.18 and 217.13, respectively. Cade Bennett won the men’s one-meter (282.15) and three-meter events (327.68).<\/p>\n
The Bulls will next compete against Niagara on January 10 at the Alumni Arena Natatorium.<\/p>\n
The Canisius swimming and diving teams fell in a dual-meet on Thursday afternoon to Big-Four Rival University at Buffalo. The meet was held at Alumni Arena in Amherst, N.Y.<\/p>\n
Despite the dual-meet loss to the Bulls, the Golden Griffins had quite a few strong individual and relay performances on both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s 400-yard freestyle relay team, which consisted of Katelyn Battaglia, Meghan Tyler, Alex Doody and Natalie Ryan, finished first with a time of 3:39.02. Along with being part of the first place finishing relay team, Doody finished first in the 500-yard freestyle and Ryan finished second with times of 5:27.56 and 5:40.38. Marissa Watroba also recorded a victory for the Blue and Gold, finishing with a time of 2:29.32 in the 200-yard breaststroke.<\/p>\n
The men\u2019s team also finished first in the 400-yard freestyle relay, as the team of Christian Westermeier, Dan Dirrgil, Nick Sereday and Tommy Kirch recorded a time of 3:14.44, just under three seconds better than the second place finishing Canisius squad. Sean Wurster (4:48.92), Spencer Bray (4:49.27) and Michael Berg (5:06.43) recorded a first, second and third place finish in the 500-yard freestyle event and Sam Hansen (2:11.74), Wyatt Sintay (2:12.31) and Austin Hill (2:22.17) also recorded a 1-2-3 finish in the 200-yard breaststroke.<\/p>\n
In the diving portion of today\u2019s meet, seniors Eddie Quarantillo and Taylor Epstein each put on a strong performance on the board. Quarantillo finished second in the 3-meter diving with a score of 281.70 and Epstein finished second in the 1-meter diving event with a score of 217.95.<\/p>\n
This was the last meet before winter break for the Golden Griffins. Canisius will swim again on January 5, when the team takes on St. Vincent College in Florida.<\/p>\n