VESTAL, N.Y. – It was a day of celebrating the past, taking advantage of the present and building towards the future for the Binghamton swimming & diving program.
Both the Bearcat men's and women's teams defeat Iona for their third straight home dual meet triumphs. The men defeated the Gaels 196-92 while the women took a 179-115 decision. The victories marked the Bearcats' final meet before next weekend's Rhode Island Invitational – the biggest meet of the fall portion of the season.
"We had a lot of great swims today and competed well," head coach
Jerry Cummiskey said. "We know we can keep getting better but for this weekend, I was pretty happy with how we raced."
Before square off against Iona, the Bearcat men's team received their 2021 America East Championship rings during a brief ceremony. It concluded a memorable week which also included the team being honored during Tuesday's Binghamton basketball doubleheader at the Events Center.
"Last year was such a crazy year and what the men's team did (in winning the America East title) was great," Cummiskey said. "To be honored at the basketball game and to give out their rings today was awesome. These are moments that they will always remember."
Binghamton posted four double event winners against Iona – two on each the men's and women's side. For the men, senior
Christopher Egan swept the diving events with scores of 293.70 (one meter) and 276.00 (three meter) while freshman
Elijah Lanfear captured the 100 free (46.70) and 100 fly (50.75). On the women's side, freshman
Lauren Kuzma took top honors in the 100 fly (1:00.44, which tied her with senior teammate
Belen Marriaga) and 200 breast (2:26.77) while sophomore
Molly Greeley was first in both the 50 free (25.16) and 200 IM (2:11.97).
Lanfear also swam on both first-place men's relay teams. He joined fellow freshman
Keegan Chatham, sophomore
Liam Murphy and senior
Ryan Board in the 200 medley relay (1:33.45) as well as Murphy, junior
Justin Meyn and senior
Benjamin Beldner in the 400 free relay (3:06.14).
Other individual winners on the men's side included Meyn in the 50 free (21.33), Chatham in the 200 back (1:54.94), sophomore
Xiaoyu Lin in the 200 breast (2:05.23), senior
Ryan Board in the 100 breast (57.90) and fellow sophomore
Henry Shemet in the 200 IM (1:57.67).
For the Binghamton women's team, senior
Amanda McGraw won the one-meter diving event with a score of 275.03 points. In the process, she met the qualifying standard for the NCAA Zone Meet (265.00) for the second time this season. Her first such performance came against Niagara and Siena back on Oct. 9.
Other event winners on the women's side were sophomore
Courtney Moane in the 100 breast (1:06.33), fellow sophomores
Marley Zimmerman in the 500 free (5:15.02)
Mel Carousso in the 1000 free (10:41.14) and freshman
Jade Liguori in the three-meter diving competition (249.08).
Moane and Greeley also were part of the first-place 200 free relay team that included fellow sophomores
Lara Geelen and
Kandice Chandra.
The Rhode Island Invitational will take place Friday-Sunday.