On Saturday Nov. 19 the Geneseo Blue Wave competed against Hartwick College, Hamilton College and host Ithaca College. Both the Geneseo men's and women's teams defeated Hartwick, but fell to Hamilton and Ithaca.
Freshman John Nasky recorded the only first place finish of the meet for Geneseo, winning 1,000 freestyle in a pool record time of 9 minutes, 28.32 seconds. Nasky also placed second in the 500 free in 4:50.71.
"That's pretty much what I expected going in, in terms of talent level and where the other teams were," said head coach Paul Dotterweich. He said that regardless of the team loss, facing increasingly better competition throughout the fall season is what's best for the team in the long run.
"That weekend is tough, lineup wise," said Dotterweich. "You just have to put the best overall lineup in the pool because we might have a good matchup versus one team in one event, but a not so favorable one in another event."
Making lineup decisions even more difficult, Geneseo did not travel with their complete roster as several of their top swimmers were left at home with injuries.
Despite the losses, Geneseo had 53 season-best times over the course of the weekend, leaving Dotterweich encouraged that his team is back on track.
"For us I think our performances were good," said Dotterweich. "I was really pleased … I was not excited about our [SUNY] Cortland effort, but I think they bounced back pretty well."
Seniors Josh Kaplan, Dan Strothenke, CJ Schaub and junior Austin Brennan took second place in the 200 medley relay with an ECAC qualifying time of 1:37.31. Kaplan added to his successful meet by also placing second in the 100 backstroke with an ECAC qualifying time of 53.61 and taking third in the 200 backstroke in 2:00.18.
In his first meet back from illness, sophomore Gian Villegas scored 237.10, earning second place on the three-meter board.
On the women's side, first-year Abby Max had a standout meet winning the 500 freestyle in a pool record time of 5:15.48 and taking second in the 200 free in ECAC-qualifying time of 1:57.24. Max was also an integral component of the 400 freestyle relay team, consisting of herself, junior Elyssa Max and sophomores Lauren Boyce and Corinne Vairo, which placed second with a time of 3:41.88.
"I'm looking forward to having everyone healthy and being able to train the group again," said Dotterweich. "We have a ton of talent, especially in our senior class. Once we put all the pieces of the puzzle back together I think we will be in good shape."
Geneseo will compete against Cornell University, LeMoyne College, Springfield College, Cortland, Hartwick and Ithaca on Friday Dec. 2 at the Ithaca Invitational.