It was a tough weekend for both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams. The teams fell to New York University on Saturday, Nov. 15, making it the men’s first loss of the season and the women’s second loss in a row.
But, even with the women’s team afflicted by illness and injury, causing changes in the roster, the women still fought hard against a strong NYU. The men’s team equally proved that they wouldn’t give up, even though they couldn’t get the win.
The men’s team came out of the water strong in the beginning of its meet by opening up with an 11-point victory. In the men’s first event — the 200-yard medley relay — seniors Alexsander Burzynski and Brett Pederson, alongside juniors James Shangle and Joseph Dunn, just barely beat out the NYU swimmers, touching the wall at 1:34.96, only 0.24 seconds ahead of their competition.
Pederson and Dunn were able to help their team win the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay at the end of the meet, this time swimming with sophomore Andrew Nesbitt and senior Brian Perez. The men started out just behind the NYU swimmers at the beginning of the race, but with a burst of energy, they were able to outswim the Violets and take the top spot in the event.
Even with the loss, the men still were able to post impressive numbers and swim at their best. In the men’s 200-yard freestyle, Nesbitt swam at a time of 1:43.90 — touching the wall two seconds ahead of his NYU competitor. The Lions were able to go one and two in this event, with sophomore Scott Vitabile coming in one second behind his teammate to take second place.
The men were able to take first in two more events and improve upon previous times in the men’s 100-yard backstroke and men’s 100-yard breaststroke. Shangle, who has been impressive all season, was able to beat his time from the last meet in the 100-yard breaststroke. He swam at a time of 57.74, beating his previous time of 58.43.
Sophomore Jin Roh was also able to beat his previous time and was even able to move up a spot in the 100-yard backstroke. In his last meet, Roh took second place with a time of 53.71. Against NYU, Roh took first place with a time of 52.85, beating the second place NYU swimmer by 0.05 seconds.
The women’s team was unable to take the win against NYU and only took first place in four of their events, but like the men, still swam strong. Some of the freshman rookies were able to help the team post some winning numbers, showing that they are a vital part to the team.
In the women’s 100-yard butterfly, the College went one, two and three, coming in just seconds behind one another. Freshman Debbie Meskin swam at a time of 1:05.42 — helping her team gain nine more points to its total. Junior Noelle DeLusant touched the wall one second after Meskin, followed by freshman Tatiana Greiner — both posting times of 1:06.61 and 1:06.91, respectively.
Freshman swimmers Ali Huber and Emily Rothstein — alongside senior Summer Thomas and junior Lauren Rothstein — were able to finish out the night by working together to put up an impressive time of 3:43.99 in the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay. The women were able to end the night on a high note, yet fell 194-98 to the imposing NYU team.
Both the men’s and women’s team have a chance to redeem themselves when the College hosts its annual, three-day invitational from Friday, Dec. 5, through Sunday, Dec. 7.
