The Geneseo Blue Wave men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams finished out the regular season strong with victories at the Geneseo Invitational on Saturday Feb. 9.
The No. 22-ranked men’s team tallied 420 points en route to a victory over SUNYAC competitors SUNY Brockport, SUNY Oswego and Buffalo State College.
The final regular season meet marked the last home meet for the seniors in their Geneseo careers.
“It’s always nice for the seniors to go out with a victory on Senior Day,” head coach Paul Dotterweich said. “It was an emotional meet and I think [both teams] did a great job of staying focused.”
Senior Frank Schiappa claimed individual victories in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle, posting times of 21.54 seconds and 48.42 seconds, respectively, as well as anchoring the winning 400 freestyle relay.
Freshman Yonghoon Jun, senior Austin Brennan and sophomore Kenny Athens rounded out the 400 freestyle relay, finishing with a time of 3:17.05.
Freshman Kristian Tialios turned in a strong performance with two individual victories in the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke with times of 2:01.76 and 56.37, respectively.
Junior Brandon Peifer won both diving events, scoring 430.15 on the 1-meter board and 292.60 in the 3-meter event. Peifer was named the SUNYAC Diver of the Week for the second time in three weeks.
The No. 25-ranked women’s team scored 427.5 points on the day fueled by standout junior diver Emily Wanamaker’s sweep of the diving events.
Wanamaker scored 428.6 on the 1-meter board and 248.85 in the 3-meter competition to push her winning streak to 11 straight meets. Wanamaker was also named SUNYAC Diver of the Week.
Sophomore Abby Max continued the accolades for the Blue Wave following Saturday’s meet with the SUNYAC Women’s Swimmer of the Week award. Max placed first in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:22.19 and was an integral part of both first place relay quartets, leading off the 400 medley and 400 freestyle teams.
Senior Kaitlin Wilcoxen, junior Emily Powell and sophomore Hayley Wixson accompanied Max on both relay teams, which posted times of 4:06.39 and 3:41.88, respectively.
Wilcoxen added an individual victory in the 100 breaststroke as well, recording a time of 1:08.82.
With a dominating performance in the final home meet of the season, the Blue Wave looks to carry its success into the SUNYAC Championships on Saturday Feb. 23 at Erie Community College.
The women’s team won the last five titles while the men’s team will carry a streak of 14 straight SUNYAC Championships into Saturday’s meet.
Dotterweich said he believes Blue Wave excelled at conference championships throughout the past decade by carefully fostering a culture that breeds success.
“[The coaching staff and I] work hard to invest our time and interest into [the men’s and women’s teams] and create a winning atmosphere that pushes our swimmers to achieve excellence both in the pool and out,” he said.