The Geneseo Blue Wave continues full steam ahead with both the men’s and women’s teams defeating the University of Rochester in a two-day meet on Friday Jan. 25 and Saturday Jan. 26. The men outscored the Yellow Jackets 259-82 and the women won 240-107.
Senior swimmer Jeff Doser performed superbly, winning five events—three relays and two individual races. Senior swimmer Scott Guyton won the 100-yard butterfly, and helped secure three first-place relay finishes. Additionally, senior diver Samuel Randall had a meet to remember, breaking his own SUNYAC record for the one-meter dive. Randall also set a Geneseo program record in the three-meter dive.
On the women’s side, freshman swimmer Noelle Staso had an impressive meet, claiming first in five events—two relays and three individual events. Junior swimmer Sydney Ng also swam well, winning four events—two relays and two individual events.
Head coach Paul Dotterweich was very pleased with the team’s performance.
“Friday, everything was working. It was a really great session for us,” Dotterweich said. “Saturday, we were a little flatter, but still swam really well.”
Dotterweich proposed an explanation for the slightly worse showing on Saturday.
“At Rochester, they don’t have a warm up and cool down space. This affects athletes the next day as they can’t appropriately work the lactic acid out of their muscles,” Dotterweich said. “This caused us to be a little tighter the second day.”
Dotterweich was extremely happy with the performance of Doser, Randall and Staso.
“Jeff is Jeff. He’s been doing it for four years, and is a guy I can always count on,” Dotterweich said. “I can’t say enough good things about him. Staso is a young, very talented freshman, who will develop greatly over time. Randall is like Jeff—he’s a superstar who won a national championship.”
Regardless of these comments, Dotterweich does not generally like to give too much praise to specific players.
“It’s not fair to pick out just those three,” Dotterweich said. “Across the board the team performed very, very well.”
Due to inconvenient circumstances, this season the Blue Wave was left without a home pool. This is clearly a hindrance for the team and makes practice difficult.
“We have faced a lot of adversity in not having a pool,” Dotterweich said. “Our athletes have shown great deal of perseverance. You’d never know we didn’t have a pool based on our performance this season.”
Not having a home pool, however, also has a hidden advantage. This season, Geneseo has been hosting their “home” meets at Erie Community College in Buffalo, N.Y. Due to smart planning by Dotterweich, this pool is where the SUNYAC Championships will be held.
“It’s definitely advantageous to have our team be accustomed to the championship pool. Becoming more comfortable and familiar with the pool and blocks, as well as the atmosphere around the deck prior to SUNYACs is beneficial for sure,” Dotterweich said.
There are only two more meets before the SUNYAC Championships begin and the team continues to work to fine tune mistakes.
“‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard’ is a good motto of how passion and dedication to the sport gives me something to strive for, which then helps me to accomplish personal and team goals,” junior swimmer Nancy Nasky said.
The Blue Wave hosts the Geneseo Invitational at ECC on Saturday Feb. 3. Then, only the Bomber Invitational on Feb. 10 stands between Geneseo and the SUNYAC Championships, which kick off on Feb 21