While most focused on Cortaca, it was the Geneseo Blue Wave swimming and diving teams who were making the biggest splash against SUNY Cortland the weekend of Saturday Nov. 16. Coming off its first conference victory over SUNY Fredonia, the teams were looking to continue their hot streak.
The athletes didn’t require much inspiration to get them excited about the matchup.
“Some meets require some motivation on my end,” head coach Paul Dotterweich said. “When we swim Cortland I don’t have to do much to get them fired up; [Cortland is] a big conference rival.”
On the men’s side, it was sophomores Yonghoon Jun and Kristian Tialios leading the way with three victories each. Jun won both of his butterfly events with a time of one minute, 59:84 seconds in the 200 meter and 52:55 in the 100 meter. Tialios followed suit with victories in the 200 backstroke (1:57:34) and 200 individual medley (2:04:57).
In diving, senior Brandon Peifer came away with the highest scores in the three-meter and one-meter, to remain unbeaten on the day.
Dotterweich emphasized that the team is focusing on “technically sound races,” which is what he saw from the men’s 183-115 victory over Cortland.
While the men might be “a far deeper team than Cortland right now,” as Dotterweich said, it was the women whose meet was a nail biter.
The women needed to secure a first-place finish in the final race of the day, a 400 free relay, to join the men in the winner’s circle. Blue Wave sent out junior Abby Max, sophomore Julie Holloway, junior Stephanie Wilcoxen and freshman Louisa Seelbach to get the job done. It was a perfect lineup, as the women swam a 3:41:18 to narrowly defeat the Cortland women, who swam a 3:44:66, scoring 152-148 overall.
Geneseo improves to 2-1 record and remains undefeated in SUNYAC.
On Saturday Nov. 23, Blue Wave will travel to Hamilton College for a meet, which will also feature Ithaca College and Hartwick College. It is the first quad match of the year for Geneseo, which can pose a problem for swimmers and coaches alike.
“The quad meet is interesting in that you really can’t set your lineup for any one team,” Dotterweich said. “What is best versus Ithaca may not be the best matchup against Hamilton or Hartwick. So there is a little extra thought required this weekend.”