PROVIDENCE, R.I. - It was a weekend of records and milestones for the Binghamton swimming & diving teams at the Brown Invitational.
Swimming against top-notch competition, the Bearcats came away from the four-day meet with a pair of NCAA B cut performances, two America East records, four school records and four freshman records. In the team standings, Binghamton was third out of six schools in the men's meet and sixth of seven squads in the women's competition.Â
"This was a great meet for us with a lot of fast performances," head coach Jerry Cummiskey said. "There were significant time drops for many of our swimmers and it leaves us in great shape heading into the break."
Senior Elijah Lanfear turned in a meet for the ages. He won the men's 50 free (19.82) and 100 free (43.21) and was second overall in the 100 fly (46.83). In the process, Lanfear broke the school record in the 100 fly as well as both the school and conference records in the 100 free. In addition, Lanfear met the NCAA B cuts in both the 100 fly and 100 free.Â
Lanfear's 100 free time broke both the school and America East record of 43.68, which was set by Kaan Tayla back in 2006. That mark also met the NCAA B cut standard of 43.25. Although Lanfear was second in the finals of the 100 fly, his first-place preliminary time of 46.70 met the NCAA B cut standard of 46.80. Both of Lanfear's 100 fly times also smashed his 2023 school record of 47.42
This marks the second straight season Lanfear has met an NCAA B cut in an event. Last year, his 50 free time of 19.93 also met the qualifying standard.
The other school and America East record performance that Lanfear was involved in was the 400 free relay. He led off that quartet, which also included junior Liam Preston, sophomore Cullin Cole and freshman Evan Peters. Although they placed fourth overall, their time of 2:55.91 eclipsed Binghamton's 2023 conference mark of 2:56.25.
While Lanfear led the Bearcat men's team at the Brown Invitational, senior Lauren Kuzma was the top women's performer. She was second in the 200 breast (2:15.38) and third in the 100 breast (1:03.54). In the process, Kuzma broke her own 200 breast school record of 2:16.25, which she set last season. Also in the 200 breast at Brown, graduate student Courtney Moane was fifth overall (2:18.87).
Peters was one of four Binghamton swimmers to set freshman records during the weekend at Brown. He was seventh overall in the 500 free finals (4:32.02) but his preliminary time of 4:25.80 topped Preston's 2023 mark of 4:26.95. Later in the meet, Peters was second overall in the 200 free (1:37.76) followed by Preston in third place (1:37.90). Preston was also eighth in both the 100 free (45.10) and 500 free (4:34.15).
In the men's 100 breast, Kennard Jackson broke the Binghamton freshman record in both the preliminaries (55.19) and finals (54.73), where he placed sixth overall. The previous rookie mark of 55.63 was set by current sophomore Will Fanning last year.
The other men's freshman record was set by Cameron Stetzer in the preliminaries of the 200 IM. His time of 1:49.52 bested Henry Shemet's 2021 mark of 1:50.40.
Freshman Natalie Kassirer set the final freshman record, clocking a sixth-place 400 IM time of 4:29.21. The previous rookie record of 4:29.59 was set by Tin Wai Siu back in 2010.Â
Also on the women's side, junior Maria Pignatelli was a finalist in a pair of events. She was sixth in the 100 breast (1:03.99) and eighth in the 50 free (23.41).Â
Other men's top performers included sophomore Harrison Lambert, who was fifth in the 1,650 free (15:41.12) and seventh in the 200 fly (1:52.49), graduate student Jake Vecchio, who was fourth in the 200 fly (1:49.07) and Cole, who was seventh in the 50 free (20.55). Junior Max Kaback, meanwhile, was seventh in the 100 back (49.58) and eighth in the 100 fly (49.57).
In addition to Binghamton and the host Bears, the other teams at the Brown Invitational included Georgetown, Drexel, New Hampshire (women only), Colgate and Rider.
The Brown Invitational marked the final meet of the fall semester for the Bearcats. They return to action on Jan. 11 with a home meet against Fairfield at 1 p.m.
NOTES: A NCAA B Cut is the minimum qualifying standard for the NCAA Championship meet in March. It is based upon the top 125 times during the previous 2023-24 season in that event. Each year, between 35-45 times per event advance to the NCAA Championships. There is a NCAA A Cut, which is an automatic qualifying time for the NCAA Championships for each event - regardless of ranking. The NCAA A Cut time for the 100 free is 41.50 and in the 100 fly, the automatic qualifying time is 44.64.Â
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