Men's Swimming: Men record season bests in final meet before layoff

With a third-place finish in the Akron Invite last weekend, the men's swimming and diving team looks to end the semester with a strong meet against Canisius Saturday at noon."We're looking to go out there, have fun and improve our times," junior Pat Henahan said. He said the team looks to build on the success it found last weekend when all but two swimmers posted season-best times in their respective events, something that impressed coach Sean McNamee.

"Really, everyone should (have). But we were damn close," he said.

McNamee credited the success to the time off the swimmers received over Thanksgiving break. "They were a little fresher for the meet. It's the first time they had gotten some rest," he said.

Friday, the first day of the meet, the swimmers jumped out to a fast start. Henahan placed second in the 50-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 21 seconds. Senior Roman Margulis followed suit, posting his season-best time of 1:54.15 in the 200-yard individual medley, good for second place.

Out of six events, the Bonnies had recorded four season-best times and found themselves in third place out of nine teams after day one of the invite.

"It's important to get out to a fast start because that is exactly what we're going to have to do in the Atlantic 10 Championships," Henahan said.

The trend continued into Saturday when sophomore Mariusz Michalik won gold in the 400-yard IM, finishing with a time of 4:08.60, the team's best time in the event this season. Henahan took gold in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 51.06, helping the team maintain its third-place standing after day two.

Sunday, senior James Wood and Michalik placed second in the 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard breaststroke. The Bonnies finished the day and
the invite in third place with a total of 1,247 points.

More important than the overall standings, the invite gave the team an up-close look at Xavier and Duquesne, two teams the Bonnies will see at the A-10s.

"Those teams are always gunning for us. We've been a perennial No. 1 or 2 team, and they're looking to prove something to us in these situations," McNamee said.

Henahan added, "It's good to see how they're doing. We wanted to go out there against them and race against some of their better guys."

Xavier won the invite with 1,390 points, and Duquesne finished fifth. However, McNamee said the final results were not the best way to gauge the competition. Since this was not an A-10 event, teams were allowed to participate in more events than usual.

After the meet against Canisius Saturday, the team will have a break for finals week. "They'll have a chance to take a break and make sure they prepare for their finals," McNamee said.

The swimmers are aware of the importance of working hard outside of the pool. "I know there are classes that I really need to do well in, so this break will give me a chance to work hard and do well on my finals," Henahan said.

After finals, the team will enter what Henahan considers to be the most important part of the schedule. With extra practices scheduled over break, he expects more from the team. "The training level is going to increase," he said. "We just have to make sure we keep working on things going into A-10s next semester."

The practices over the break also help the team beyond the mechanics of swimming. "Since we're here after everyone else leaves for break, we have a chance to bond as a team," Henahan said.

"I'm not sure what to expect," freshman Kevin Murphy said. Murphy finished with a top time in the 500-yard freestyle and fourth place in the 200-yard breaststroke over the weekend.

"We just have to keep working on our times and putting in the effort in practices," he said.

The meet Saturday will give the swimmers one more chance to "up" their times. "Canisius always has a decent team," Henahan said. "This meet will give some guys a chance to get stronger in other events that they don't usually swim in.