By: Connor Pohlman
Despite losing to rival Niagara, the men and women of the Canisius swim/dive team have much to be proud about after etching their name in the record books. The final scores of the Battle of the Bridge against Niagara were 167–121 (men) and 199–101 (women), respectively, Saturday afternoon at the Koessler Athletic Center Pool. Canisius set four pool records in the loss.
On the men's side, freshman Archie Minto sat atop the 100 fly with a time of 51.61. Minto bested Binghamton's Tim Cabasino's time of 51.68, set back in 2012-13, and he also claimed a first-place finish in the 200 fly (1:54.13), rounding out a perfect regular season in the event.
Senior Liam O'Connell also set a pool record for the men's team. O’Connell’s 1:42.88 200 free breaks another time from 2012-13, originally set by Vatslav Lets from St. Bonaventure (1:44.30).
O'Connell dominated his other two solo events, touching the wall at 4:40.86 in the 500 and 9:58.93 in the 1000 frees.
For the women's team, graduate student Sage Pollack once again earned first-place victories in the 50- and 100- free events, reaching a perfect six-for-six in meets.
Pollack also etched her name in the record book with a time of 24.26 in the 50, besting Binghamton's Caitlin Kelly's time of 24.29 from 2012-13. Additionally, the New City, N.Y. native's 100-free time (52.85) broke Meghan King's (St. Bonaventure) pool record that was set in 2006-07 (53.21).
Canisius returns to the pool in the second week of February for the MAAC Swimming and Diving Championships, which will be held Feb. 9–12 at the Burt Flickinger Center in downtown Buffalo.