With both teams unbeaten in their past two contests, the Binghamton University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams enter the America East Championship at University of Maryland, Baltimore County hoping their momentum carries them to conference titles.
After one day of competition, the men sit in third place and the women in sixth. The men, with 93 points, are just 21 points shy of first-place University of Maryland, Baltimore County and 14 back of Boston University. Both the 800-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley men’s relay teams finished third in their competitions. The women, despite sitting in sixth, have 54 points and are 26 points back of first-place University of New Hampshire and only 12 points back of second-place UMBC.
The men’s team (5-4) is searching for its first America East title since the 2002-03 season. The team has come close in its other seasons, but has fallen just short every time. The Bearcats came in second place in 2001-02 and each year from 2003-06. In the years since, Binghamton has finished third at the championships.
The men are on a two-match win streak, including a 163-124 victory over conference opponent Stony Brook University. The team entered the year predicted to finish third out of the five teams in the conference, behind UMBC and Boston, respectively. The projected finishes match the final results from last year’s America East tournament. The only Bearcat to win an event at that tournament was then-freshman David Gleason, who earned a victory in the 500-meter freestyle, but Gleason has not swam this season. Sophomore Anthony Foiles finished second in the one-meter dive, while junior Nolan Slesnick finished in the top three in three events. Both Foiles and Gleason were named to the All-Conference team last year.
Some of the important Bearcats at the event will likely include Slesnick, who has the fourth-best time in the conference in the 1,650 freestyle this year; Foiles, with the fourth-best performance in the one- and three-meter dive; senior Jason Chen, who has the third-best time in the 200 individual medley and junior Joe Perez-Rogers, with the third-best time in the 100 backstroke. As a team, the Bearcats top out with the second-best time in the 200 medley.
The women’s team (6-3-1) hasn’t fared as well in recent years, though it hopes to have a reversal of fortune this season. The team had a high point of finishing third at the championships in 2002-03, but hasn’t finished better than fifth in the years since. Last season Binghamton ended up sixth out of the seven teams. This year the team was predicted to finish fifth, behind Boston, UMBC, New Hampshire and University of Vermont, respectively.
The Bearcats are coming off a tie against Stony Brook, the team’s first ever in Division I. That came following a 178.5-121.5 win against AE foe Vermont.
Senior Amanda Ciccone and sophomore Tiffany Siu lead the squad. Ciccone earned fifth- and sixth-place finishes at last year’s AE tournament.
The championships began last night and are scheduled to continue through Sunday. Competition is set to resume at 10 a.m. each day.