Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams won their respective season openers on Nov. 3 against SUNY Fredonia.
A trio of young swimmers each tallied two wins in the meet to lead the way for the men’s side. Sophomore John Nasky, who took home two individual titles at last year’s SUNYAC championships, placed first in the 500 and 1,000 freestyle with respective times of four minutes, 59.26 seconds and 10:18.70 seconds.
Nasky’s classmate Kenny Athans showed his versatility, winning the 200 butterfly in 2:03.55 and the 200 breaststroke in 2:24.52. SUNYAC acknowledged Athans’ accomplishments, naming him the SUNYAC men’s swimmer of the week.
Freshman Yonghoon Jun rounded out the dynamic trio by winning the 100 butterfly and 50 freestyle in times of 53.81 and 22.78 for his first collegiate meet.
Freshman Kristian Tialios won the only other individual event for the Blue Wave with a time of 55.98 in the 100 backstroke.
Tialios, Jun and Athans teamed up with senior Frank Schiappa to win the 200 medley relay in 1:38.96 for Geneseo’s only other win on the day.
The relay win came despite the team’s lack of practice in exchanges, according to head coach Paul Dotterweich.
“We’re definitely going to put some time into [exchanges] this week,” Dotterweich said. He added that it was difficult to work on exchanges, though, because the team does not all practice at the same time.
A trio of two-event victors led the women’s side. Senior Kaitlin Wilcoxen, a first-team All-SUNYAC performer from last year, kicked off her pursuit of another such honor with wins in the 100 (1:09.77) and 200 (2:32.38) breaststroke.
Sophomore Abby Max won the 1,000 freestyle in 11:08.68 and the 200 breaststroke in 2:11.64. Fellow sophomore and 2012 NCAA tournament participant Haleigh Wixson swam her way to wins in the 50 free and 200 IM with times of 25.47 and 2:16.85.
The Geneseo women won five additional events on the day, including freshman Hailey Modelewski’s win in the 100 butterfly. With a time of 1:00.97, she swam within a second of her personal best, according to Dotterweich.
Although Dotterweich said it was hard to map his team’s progression so early into the season, he said, “The team is going in the right direction.”
The Blue Wave hosts SUNY Cortland on Saturday Nov. 10 in its second meet on the season.