Swim and Dive take their toughest loss of the season to St. Bonaventure

By Hannah Wiley, Features Editor

Last Friday, men and women’s swimming and diving competed against St. Bonaventure University. Both teams fell to the Bonnies in their toughest loss of the season.

On the men’s side, the Griffs finished the meet with a final score of 208–86. St. Bonaventure dominated the meet, successfully taking the top 13 overall swims of the meet and four out of the five top spots for points scored. Junior Elliot Somers accumulated a total of 13 points, tying for fourth place with Luigi Termine from St. Bonaventure.

Somers finished first in the 200-yard backstroke with a season-best time of 1:53.93. He also finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 51:66 and had a season-best split leading off the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 22 seconds. Senior Sam Vidal finished ninth overall for overall points with 12. He also finished first in the 200-yard breaststroke. Somers and Vidal swam the only two first-place finishes of the meet for the Griffs. Canisius also had six second-place finishes and eight third-place finishes. 

On the women’s side, the Griffs finished with a score of 233–67. St. Bonaventure filled the top nine spots for overall points scored, and Canisius junior SaraJo Gardner accumulated nine points, tying with Alessandra Ren of St. Bonaventure. Gardner swam a season-best time of 2:12.02 in the 200-yard backstroke finishing second. She also swam a season-best split leading off the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 28:44. 

St. Bonaventure also dominated the top seven swims of the meet with junior Evie Leighton coming in eighth with her 50-yard freestyle swim. Leighton finished the race with a season-best time of 24:65 and placed second. Overall, the women didn’t have a single first-place finish, but accumulated five second-place finishes and four third-place finishes. They had one personal-best time with sophomore Daphne Mead leading off the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 25:22. 

The Griffs’ next meet is the University at Buffalo Invite Nov. 21 and 22. 

Photo courtesy of Havana Austin