For the second time in four years, the Binghamton men’s swimming and diving team captured the America East (AE) championship title. Competing over the stretch of four days in Lexington, Virginia, the Bearcat men outlasted Bryant for the title — nabbing multiple gold medals and rewriting the record books along the way. Also competing was the Binghamton women’s swimming and diving team, who finished fifth out of seven teams.

“We’re just proud of the group to really kind of band together and pull out a true team effort,” said Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey. “We had one of our top guys go down and get injured and was pretty much out for the week, so they had to rally around him and pick him up. They did it so it’s exciting.”

Both squads started strong on day one by taking gold in three out of the four relay events. Spearheading the effort with an AE record-setting time of 6:28.94 in the 800 free was the quartet of seniors Henry Shemet, Jake Vecchio, Liam Murphy and sophomore Liam Preston to secure BU’s third straight title in the event. Shemet continued to swim through injury on the day, anchoring the 200 medley relay alongside sophomore Max Kaback, junior Elijah Lanfear and senior Eric Kroon to take first with a time of 1:26.48 — another AE record. Rounding out the day’s efforts on the women’s side were freshman Haley Nowak, sophomore Olivia Philbrick and seniors Courtney Moane and Maddie Hoover with a school-record timesheet of 1:41.51 to secure first in the 200 medley relay.

“We just started with confidence and really built from that,” Cummisky said. “We’ve won the 800 free on the men’s side before and that was our strongest going in, but to win the medley in the fashion we did was certainly exciting and set the tone that we can do this.”

On day two of the championship, several Bearcat men clocked in podium finishes to take the lead from the Bulldogs. Leading the way with the day’s lone gold medal effort was Lanfear in the 50 free, clocking in a time of 19.68 to beat the conference record by nearly two-tenths of a second. Also securing major points for BU in the 500 free were Preston and Murphy, placing second and third respectively with times of 4:27.14 and 4:27.27. Another silver-bronze sweep was found in the 200 IM courtesy of fifth year Marc Stern and Kaback who punched in times of 1:50.40 and 1:50.75.

Not to be outdone on day three, the women’s squad was led to two golds of their own by Moane. First, Moane won her first career AE individual title in the 100 breast, finishing in a time of 1:02.32 as junior Lauren Kuzma took bronze behind her with a time of 1:03.31. Moane followed this effort by leading the same quartet that took first in the 200 medley relay to gold in the 400 medley relay with a school record-setting time of 3:43.06. The final gold medal won by the Bearcat women on the weekend came during day four, with Kuzma taking the 200 breast with a time of 2:16.25 to cap off BU’s fifth-place effort on the women’s side.

“That was our best [AE] meet on the woman’s side in years,” Cummiskey said. “To have individual titles, to have multiple people on the podium, broke school records, we won relay titles. That’s going to be a catalyst for our women’s program.”

After a quieter day three that saw the Bearcat men hold the lead through the strength of their depth in the various events as a trio of gold medals on the final day cemented their conference title win. Snagging a second individual gold medal on the weekend was Lanfear, capturing his second straight 100 free title with a timesheet of 44.02. Then came the final two events of the weekend, with Stern and Vecchio holding things down for the home stretch with a 1-2 sweep of the 200 fly respectively clocking in at 1:47.79 and 1:47.84. Closing things out by snagging gold in the 400 free relay were Lanfear, Murphy, senior George Kipshidze and Preston with a time of 2:57.42. With this final first-place result, the Bearcat men secured the AE championship with a final tally of 795.50 points.

Binghamton finishes the 2023-24 swim and dive season having gone 5-1 in scored meets on the men’s side and 4-2 on the women’s side. For their efforts and success at the AE championships, Cummiskey and his staff were named the AE men’s coaching staff of the year. With improvements on both sides of the action and several core pieces returning, Cummiskey is optimistic for the future of his program.

“This was the first year that everyone on this team was brought in by our current staff and bought in and really came together to be better as a group,” Cummiskey said. “I think our goal is to really build on that kind of culture as a team. With the men winning two championships in four years. that now becomes the expectation to some extent.”