The Colgate men’s swimming and diving team had its first Patriot League meet of the year this past weekend, hosting the Loyola Greyhounds. Despite a concluding 171.5 – 126.5 loss to the Greyhounds, the team racked up a handful of strong races suggesting a promising season ahead.

“The team is continuing to improve and looking stronger year by year. A lot of that is thanks to our strong first-year class, who is helping us tremendously. They fit perfectly into our team and are strong assets in both meets and practices. Overall, our goal is to place higher than we did last year at

conference, and although it’s early it’s looking like we’ll be able to accomplish that,” junior captain Ryan Mathes said.

Exceptional performances this weekend came from first-year Andrew Kelemen, who finished the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:06.79 and clinched his first collegiate victory, and first-year Camden Koch, who finished first in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 53.62 and also claimed second place for both the 200-yard IM (2:00.29) and the 200-yard backstroke (2:01.16). Colton Hall came in hot to his sophomore season claiming not one, not two, but three titles in the 200-yard butterfly (1:56.02), 100-yard freestyle (48.02), and 100-yard butterfly (51.93). 

As for the upperclassmen, junior Max Michael took home the first place title in the 200-yard freestyle after hitting the wall in a speedy 1:46.84. Senior diver Thomas Fretz recorded the top score on the 1-meter dive (232.12) before placing second in the 3-meter dive (195.60).

“A lot of guys really stepped up and pulled out some big wins for us. The first-years really showed up and swam some great times for this early in the season, which is really exciting for them and for our team going forward,” senior captain Seamus Fitzhenry said.

 On paper, closing with a loss against Loyola does not fully express the effort and potential the men have for the 2017-2018 season. The Loyola Greyhounds and the Colgate Raiders in years past have been consistently neck-and-neck in terms of securing a seed in the Patriot League Tournament, both on the men’s and the women’s side. The efforts shown at this meet, examining each race independently of one another, have secured and instilled a promising tone within the team.

“This meet really showed me that we have a good chance at surpassing them at this year’s conference championship. Going forward, we can improve our starts and finishes, as those were a bit rusty and we got out touched a few times. But, besides that, this meet was great for both teams and we started the season off on the right foot,” Fitzhenry said.

As the first league meet of the year, brushing off some cobwebs and rust is to be expected, and it seems that the individual techniques requiring some sharpening and tightening are fixable and very much so attainable.

With an off-weekend coming up for the Colgate men’s swimming and diving team, the next competition on the docket is on October 28 at noon, where the Raiders will host a local neighbor, the Binghamton University Bearcats. 

Contact Charlotte Redican at [email protected].