The aquamen and women of Binghamton University take to the lanes for their first meet of the season on Saturday. After the men landed in third place and the women achieved sixth place in the America East Conference last season, the Bearcats come back hoping to stir up the waters.
“The upperclassmen realize they are not going to just be given their places,” said head coach Sean Clark in a Binghamton University press release. “They have to earn it every day; the freshmen want to prove they belong. There is a lot of competition in the pool, most of it’s friendly. You want to push yourself and feel good and represent. If you’re going to beat me, you better beat our opponents.”
Leading the team on the men’s front is last year’s team MVP, sophomore Nolan Slesnick. Slesnick won the 1650-meter freestyle and 400-meter individual medley, breaking Binghamton University records at the AE Conference meet. He also set the conference record for the 400 IM and placed third in the 500-meter freestyle. To top it all off, Slesnick was awarded newcomer of the year in the meet.
Senior Philip Dzieniszewski also has an impressive record, placing fourth in the 50 free and 100 butterfly. Other formidable veterans returning to the water are last season’s H2O award-winner junior Jason Chen and sophomore Joe Perez-Rogers, last season’s record holder in the 100 backstroke.
“We have such a strong core of returnees,” Clark said. “Jason really broke out last year. [Rogers] knows he has to keep up the work. [Slesnick] is picking up right where he left off last year, when he was conference champion in two events. He’s got a mark he’s got to swim ahead of.”
According to Clark, the new Bearcat blood seems promising. Freshmen David Gleason, Josh Saccurato and Andrew Ellman make their debut for the squad this season.
“We’re excited about Gleason, who really started to blossom last year,” said Clark. “[Saccurato] is the most versatile on the team. He’s just on the upswing along with former club-level teammate Ellman, who is our top breaststroker after we lost our two school record holders all at once. We’re putting it on the freshmen right away. We expect Ellman to be a three-event finalist.”
Clark hopes that the women’s team will have a better performance than it did last year.
“I’m not happy with where we are,” he said. “It’s not a comfortable position. It’s not where we want to be. One of the things that we’re really looking to do is to break a few team relay records.”
Returning for the Bearcats is junior and team MVP Amanda Ciccone. Ciccone placed fifth in the 100 fly, sixth in the 50 free and seventh in the 100 free at last year’s conference championships. Other swimmers looking to make a comeback are the team’s 100 breaststroke record holder, senior Allyce Brand, and senior Rita Brodfuehrer.
“Brand is our school record holder in the 100 breast, and she’s ready for a great senior campaign,” Clark said. “Her breaststroke and her sprinting is going to be extremely valuable. Brodfuehrer is continuing to hack time off of her events.”
The Bearcats’ aim now is to be in top shape when the conference meet rolls around.
“Our ultimate goal in a swim season is to swim fast in February,” Clark said. “Yes, it’s fun to get some competitive dual meets, yes it’s fun to challenge ourselves in practice, but we define our success by the conference meet. For the men, we have to hold our position. Yes, we were third, but it was one of the best team efforts; we had 72 lifetime best times, all 18 guys were involved. [We] broke eight school records, [and] that’s a powerful performance. We would only be truly satisfied if we had similar results this year.”
The swimming and diving team kicks off its season at the University at Buffalo for an all-day event on Saturday.