Maybe their stomachs were still stuffed with turkey.
It was a rough day for the Binghamton University swimming and diving teams, as both squads came up short in a dual meet Wednesday at Cornell. The men lost 132-100 and now stand at 5-1 on the season, while the women fell 170-71, and now stand at 1-5 for the year.
While there were few bright spots at the Teagle Hall Natatorium, junior David Holmes broke the school record in the 1000-meter freestyle, finishing in a time of 9:37.67, beating the old mark by less than one second.
On the men’s side, sophomore Kaan Tayla won both the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle, and freshman Brenno Varanda came out on top in the 200-meter breaststroke.
“The team made did make a gallant effort at the Ivy-League powerhouse, but Big Red has a team with a lot of depth,” said freshman Brian Koralewski.
“Coming off of the Bucknell invite, we went into Cornell wanting to have the feeling that even tired we could still swim fast,” said sophomore Ryan Henderson. “We swam well and posted good times including some season bests on the men’s and women’s sides.”
Henderson also notes that there is something that can be taken from defeat.
“I think the meet was successful because it will humble our guys to see that although we are 5-1 we can always be better, and it will push us to work harder come February.”
On the women’s side, senior Eden Payabyab placed second in the 200-meter freestyle, and third in the 200-meter butterfly.
Freshman Aleksandra Grubic, who finished second in the 100 freestyle, admits that taking on Cornell was no easy task from the start.
“Cornell was a really tough meet for us,” Grubic said. “No one really expected a lot, we knew that they were a good team.”
But head coach Patrice Back was happy with the performance of her team.
“The teams had to dig deep to swim well,” Back said in a statement after the meet. “I am happy the way we swam. We are looking ahead to championships in February.”
The Bearcats are now off until Jan. 5 when they participate in the Florida Invite.
“We feel confident and strong about heading into our next event,” Koralewski said.