It’s November, which means that the Geneseo men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams’ seasons have just kicked off. The Blue Wave had their first conference meet on Saturday Nov. 5, where the men and women took down SUNY Fredonia 168-127 and 168-121, respectively, at Alumni Pool. The win took the men to 1-1 and the women to 2-1 on the year. This comes after their season opener, where the men fell 133.5-109.5 and the women won 130.5-112.5 against Canisius College at Erie Community College.
They had multiple event winners against Fredonia, including senior swimmer Kevin Schaub and junior diver Sam Randall. Schaub took first in the 200m butterfly with 1:56.95, the 500m freestyle with 5:04.01 and helped to win the 400m medley relay. Randall took first in the 1-meter diving with a score of 303.35 and second in the 3-meter diving with a score of 324.90.
Due to their performance against Canisius, not one but three of the athletes were named SUNYAC athletes of the week in swimming and diving.
Junior swimmer Jeff Doser was awarded Men’s Swimmer of the Week for winning two individual events and being part of a winning relay team. Senior swimmer Leeza Seelbach was awarded Women’s Swimmer of the Week after also winning two individual events and for being a part of a winning relay team. Additionally, senior diver Claudia Kolakowski won Women’s Diver of the Week after winning both of her events. “Our team is always happy to have SUNYAC swimmers and divers of the week,” Randall said. “The fact that our team had three speaks volumes to the amount of effort that our coaches put into our program.”
The Knights won the 2016 SUNYAC Championship, and have the same goal for 2017.
“We are looking again to win the SUNYAC Championship, as well as send a larger group of athletes to the national championship,” Randall said. “I believe our team can win SUNYACs for both men and women’s teams.”
It isn’t just high goals, though, that they set in the pool. This year, the team also has a goal of a cumulative 3.3 GPA, and they hope that several of their athletes can make the dean’s or president’s list each semester. “They truly go above and beyond to push us both academically and athletically to become the model program on this campus,” Randall said.
Randall is one of the best Division III divers in the entire country. Last year, he made it to the NCAA Regional Championship, winning the 1-meter title, and this year he intends to do the same.
“My individual goals this year are to go back to nationals and to achieve two more All-American award finishes,” Randall said.
On top of making sure returning teammates do well this year, the team does an excellent job at making the freshmen feel right at home, as the change to the college level can be difficult.
“We have a program in which we have ‘bigs’ and ‘littles’ on the team, where an upperclassman is responsible for looking after a freshman … the freshman class is always welcomed with open arms,” Randall said. “As a team, we acknowledge that the freshmen will one day become the leaders.”
The teams are in action again this Saturday Nov. 12 when they face off against conference rivals SUNY Cortland at 1 p.m.