The Binghamton men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams suffered their first losses of the season in their away meets at Bucknell on Saturday, with the men (1-1) losing 172.5-127.5 and the women (2-1) falling 174-121. The defeats came after a 190-point win difference against Niagara University for the men and wins against both Siena College and Niagara for the women in the teams’ opening meets.

“I think early in the season we’re just figuring out where we are, where we’re strong and some of the things we need to work on,” said Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey. “Bucknell is a good team. We swam pretty well and had a good day overall.”

Despite the loss, the men’s swimmers had a few winners. Freshman Matthew Palguta won the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:53.02, six seconds faster than his original seed time, giving the men’s team its first nine points of the meet. Palguta also won the 500-yard freestyle, clocking in at seven seconds under his seed time at 4:42.62. Additional first-place winners for the men were sophomore Ryan Board in the 100-yard breaststroke (57.92) and senior Ross Bernstein in the 200-yard butterfly (1:54.09). Junior Shane Morris came close to first place, but ultimately took second in the 100-yard backstroke (53.39).

“We had some really good swims,” Cummiskey said. “There were a lot of close races yesterday that, had they gone our way, would have changed how close the meet was down the stretch, but that doesn’t always happen. We have to work to make sure that some of the closer races go our way.”

While the men’s swimmers only had a few wins, the divers swept on their end. Freshman Ryan Cohn tallied 18 points with his two first-place finishes in the one-meter (287.1) and three-meter (274.88) events, while sophomore Chris Egan took second in both events (275.18 and 268.80) to aid in the sweep against the Bison.

“We’re always working on individually getting better, whether that’s race-planning or base-work or technique-work,” Cummiskey said. “Everyone’s got things they need to work on. Overall, I think we need to work on our underwaters and some of the details of our starts and finishes, things like that.”

Senior Sydney Atendido delivered the first notable performance on the women’s team, coming in second in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.59), leading up to another second-place spot by freshman Meadow Perez in the 200-yard butterfly (2:09.64). Senior Olivia Santos won the 50-yard freestyle (24.76), sealing nine points for the women. She earned the team another four from a second-place spot in the 100-yard freestyle (53.50). Senior Rebecca Nelson capped off the swim results with a top finish in the 400-yard individual medley in 4:54.02. Bucknell junior Maggie Wyngowski actually won the event but used the event as her exhibition race.

Similar to the men’s team, junior Sophia Howard swept both diving events, scoring 255.3 in the one-meter and 240.38 in the three-meter. Despite this result, the Bearcats still couldn’t pull together a victory for their teams. However, the most important results will come at the America East Conference Championships in February.

“We utilize the dual meets to just set ourselves up for what we’re going to do in February,” Cummiskey said. “They’re stepping stones, and each week is a chance to get better and work on how we race and to do what we need to do to make sure things are as good as they can be in February.”

On Nov. 9, the Bearcats are set to face Canisius at home. Last year, the Bearcats beat the Golden Griffins by 191-108 and 200-100 for the men’s and women’s teams, respectively.

“I think we have to get better at some things and figure out how we can improve ourselves,” Cummiskey said. “Overall, we’re happy with where we’re at.”

The meet against Canisius will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9 from the Patricia A. Saunders Aquatic Center in Vestal, New York.