In their first conference meet of the year, the Blue Wave men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams cruised to a decisive victory over SUNY Fredonia. Geneseo was able to pull away with the dual victory in part due to the strong showing from sophomore Kristian Tialios and senior Lily Powell.
Tialios began the meet as a part of the 200 medley with fellow Geneseo swimmers junior Kenny Athans, sophomore Jordan Gay and sophomore Andy Schunk. The foursome was victorious in their efforts with a time of 1 minute, 38:47 seconds. Tialios then registered first-place efforts in the 100 back (55.12), 200 back (1:58.46) and the 200 IM (2:03.25) to lead Geneseo. Powell followed suit with three victories of her own.
After last week’s loss against Division I Canisius College, Geneseo bounced back and defeated Fredonia, as the men won 164-136 and the women won 167-133.
There is a clear difference in the level of opponents when facing schools from different divisions, which head coach Paul Dotterweich acknowledged.
“Canisius is a much better team. I believe that, to elevate the level of your program, you have to swim [against] better teams. Canisius offers us that. Fredonia is a quality [Division III] opponent within our conference,” Dotterweich said.
Even though it is a new season and both teams have lost previous All-Americans, Dotterweich is looking toward success from his swimmers.
“I expect both teams to be crowned SUNYAC Champions,” Dotterweich said. “That is always our goal and expectation. I feel confident that both teams will outwork the competition all year and will reap the benefits of that hard [work] when it is time to rest.”
Dotterweich knows a thing or two about success. Blue Wave is entering its 14th season under its decorated coach. In the 2012-2013 season, he led the women’s team to its sixth-straight SUNYAC conference title. Dotterweich was named the SUNYAC Men’s Coach of the Year for seven seasons and Women’s Coach of the Year for three.
It is the beginning of what is potentially another dominant year for Geneseo swimming.
Blue Wave returns to action with a road dual meet at 1 p.m. Saturday Nov. 16 at SUNY Cortland.