UB men's and women's swimming weekly release

Men Win Zippy Invite; Women Place Third

The University at Buffalo men's swimming and diving team won the University of Akron's Zippy Invitational on Sunday evening. The Bulls totaled 1,626 points to outdistance second-place Xavier. The UB women finished third of 12 teams with 1,000.5 points as Ohio University took the team title.

Bulls Break Records at Meet

UB's men set three meet or pool records during the three-day meet. The Bulls finished the meet on Sunday with a meet record and season-best time in their victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The top UB foursome of Simon Proudfoot, Mike Dugan, Matt Hogan and Jared Heine touched in 3:03.88 to secure the record and the meet title.  On Saturday, the Bulls posted a win in the 200-yard medley relay as Phil Aronica, Hogan, Matt Schwippert, and Heine broke the meet and pool record, finishing in a UB season-best time of 1:32.06. The time was four-tenths of a second better than UB's previous season best and bettered the meet and pool record set in 2009 by Xavier by eight-tenths of a second. Also on Saturday, Kenny Rhoades set the meet record of 305.55 points in the one-meter diving preliminary round. Rhoades finished third in the final with 276.65 points.

Men's Squad Takes Four Individual Titles

Besides the two relay record-setting wins, the UB men also won four individual events and a third relay over the weekend. Matt Schwippert claimed the 200-yard freestyle in a season-best 1:50.43 and  Eric Culver won the 1,650-yard freestyle race in 16:08.90 on Sunday. Aronica also won the 100-yard backstroke title on Saturday in a season-best 50.11. Colin Patrican won the one-meter diving title with 302.35 points after Rhoades set the meet record in the preliminary round. In Friday's opening night, the 400-yard medley relay of Aronica, Josh Meints, Cory Zorsch and Hogan took first place in a season-best time of 3:24.05. 

Schirmers, Marecki, Giachino Earn Seconds for UB Women

In the women's meet, the Bulls finished with three second-place showings. Alie Schirmers placed second in the A final of the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:21.90 while Brynn Marecki took fifth in 2:24.65. Marecki picked up a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke as she narrowly missed out on the title. She finished in a season-best 1:04.94, three-hundredths of a second behind Clarion's Kelly Connolly (1:04.91). Kelsey Barbour was seventh for the Bulls in 1:07.25. Ava Giachino placed second in the women's one-meter diving competition with a six-dive total of 245.40 points. Giachino also placed fifth in the three-meter event.

Andy's Assessment

Head coach Andy Bashor commented on his team's success following the meet. "I am very pleased with our performances this weekend," he said. "We didn't rest or shave so we went into this meet pretty tired and most of the other teams were shaved and rested and we held our own. We had to handle adversity which will only make us better at the end of the season. Congratulations to the men for a great win. It was definitely a team effort. We have some time off from the dual meet season with exams around the corner. We have done an outstanding job with our training and we expect great results at the end of the season."