Dillon Flannigan – Contributor
The university men’s swimming and diving team defeated the College of Staten Island 132-74 in the first NE10 season in Staten Island’s history, winning their first conference meet of the year and improving to 2-4.
The University entered Hutchison Natatorium inside James Moore Fieldhouse after two weeks off. They welcomed the Staten Island Dolphins of New York City in a dual meet with the women’s team.
“I think we came in here more fired up than we have in the past, ready to get after it, facing someone from the NE10 this year. That was a good motivation for the team to really show the NE10 what we really have versus just some other D-1 team that’s not in our conference,” exercise and sports science major Dylan Prescher, a junior, said.
The first event of the meet for the men was the 400-yard medley relay and it included two groups of Owls. The A team consisted of J.D. Starkey and Jack Fry, sophomores, Travis Scott, a freshman, and Kobe Dominguez, a junior. They won the first event with a time of 3:40.17. The B team completed the relay with Collin Doyle, a senior, and Nick Fournier, Zach Krantz and Aiden Kennedy, sophomores, with a time of 3:44.43.
“Pretty good. My hundreds are really starting to come together. I am starting to hold together all of my underwaters, my breakouts and just being able to kick for a full 100 overall is really doing bits for me,” sport management major Fournier said.
Prescher completed the 1000-yard Freestyle and secured a place in first place out of four Owls with a 10:08.07 time. Kristopher Janney, a freshman, swam to a 10:29.17 time ahead of Nicholas Zerva, a sophomore, with a time of 10:48.27.
“It was good. I wanted to go fast. I was hoping to go a little faster. All things considered, I did what I could today. I’m happy with it,” Prescher said.
The Owls wiped the Dolphins with four of the seven competing swimmers representing the university placed in the top four of the 200-yard Freestyle. They were led by Franklin Kuhn, a senior, with a time of 1:48.09. Kuhn was followed in order by Lucas Quiroga, a freshman, at 1:50.19, Samir Souidi, a sophomore, at 1:52.60 and Fournier at 1:55.80.
“We’ve just been working our tails off all year. We have been focusing a lot on the 200 events even though today we only really had the 200 IM and the 200 freestyle. But our emphasis on the 200s have brought together all our sprint events as well,” Fournier said.
Fry led the Owls in the 50-yard Freestyle at 22:10, with the placement of Drew Ladner, a junior, in third place with a time of 22.35. Adam Fred, a freshman, came in at 22:48, and Doyle clocked in at 23:20.
With the Dolphins taking the top two spots in the 200-yard individual medley, Michael Aiello, a junior, claimed third place at 2:08.10. Jacob Tanner, a sophomore, swam into fourth place with a 2:08.27 time, and Scott followed with a time of 2:09.00.
In the 100-yard butterfly, Tanner secured his first win with a time of 54.92. He was followed by Aiello at 55.31 and a fourth-place finish by Zerva at 58:07.
Ladner completed the 100-yard freestyle at 48.86 and was quickly backed up by Kuhn at 48.95.
Fred seized the 100-yard backstroke event with a time of 54.38. He was met with Dominguez at 54.63 and Starkey at 54.88.
Doyle was one of three swimmers and the only one who represented the Owls in the 500-yard freestyle. After falling behind early in the swim, he focused and came back to attain first place at 5:12.44.
The university lost the 100-yard breaststroke event, with both Dolphins swimmers placing first and second. Although Dominguez struck third place, he had the best time of 1:01.19.
In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Dolphins took the only two placement spots in the event. The Owls A team included Fry, Prescher, Kennedy and Zerva who had an event leading 3:20.99 as the B team, consisting of Kuhn, Fred, Aiello and Fournier had a time of 3:21.13. Team C’s crew was made up of Ladner, Quiroga, Starkey and Krantz who registered a time of 3:21.49.
Unlike the women’s meet, this contest included a diving event. In the 1-meter dive, J.T. Tressel, a junior, scored 233.10 as his fellow teammate and diver Jayson Main, a freshman, scored 210.45.
“I feel like I dove well. It was difficult to dive without a cochair, but me and my teammate Jayson both did our best, and then we got good results,” special education major Tressel said.
In the final dive event of the meet, Main scored 200.40 in the 3-meter dive, compared to Tressel who took in a score of 177.92.
“Today was a great example of the depth of this program,” Head Coach Tim Quill said.
Anything can happen at any point. We are staying very optimistic about what this program could do,”
The program tends to play Division I schools frequently. That includes UConn, Central Connecticut and Yale. With Yale and Pace University on the horizon, the team is looking forward to great competition.
“Yale is a very good school, especially with diving. They have great athletes, so I am going to try and focus on myself and get the best results possible. With Pace, we go against them every year. It is fun competition with them. It is always even, so I am going to try to do our best try and place well,” Tressel said.
