Swim and Dive claim first wins in season opener
By Jase May, Sports Editor
The Canisius Swimming and Diving team started their season off strong at Saturday’s meet, with both the men’s women’s teams securing their first win of the season over the University of Rochester with scores of 184–112 and 164–136, respectively.
The women’s team also raced Metro Conference foe Siena for tri–meet action, where the Saints bested the Griffs by 13 points.
The meet was clustered with strong individual performances. Of the 32 events, Canisius hosted a top finisher in 17 events, with 15 of those wins coming in individual races.
The star of the show was senior Evie Leighton. The Niagara–on–the–Lake, Ontario native claimed two first place finishes during the meet in both the 100 and 200 free. Leighton secured pool records in both of those events, getting off to a hot start for her final collegiate season.
Senior Cassandra Ercoli, who joined Leighton in the first–place women’s 200 medley relay, also had an impressive day with two first place finishes, sweeping both breaststroke events.
Following these two strong performances, the day was highlighted by strong performances and breakouts for the freshmen swimmers. Of the 15 individual first place finishes, seven came from rookies.
Alex Velicico was among the strongest, with two first place finishes in the 500 free and 100 back in addition to competing in the men’s first–place 200 medley relay. Freshman diver Amico Anderson also finished with two first place performances in the men's 1M and 3M events.
Other first place finishers came from freshmen Jake Phare, Emma Cwiklinski and Isla Ho, sophomores Hubert Hawkins and Peyton Gilliland and breaststrokers Atticus Hlubin and Giovanni Poggio.
Velicoco’s performances earned him Canisius’ first weekly honors of the season, taking home the Metro’s Rookie and Male Swimmer of the Week awards.
The Golden Griffins will swim again on Oct. 24 at the Burt Flickinger Center in Buffalo, N.Y. where they will take on in–state Geneseo.
Comments