Swim teams see season of growth

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By Ryan Signorino
Staff Writer

After months of intense training and two-a-day practices, the St. Bonaventure University swimming and diving teams wrapped up their seasons at the Atlantic 10 Championships this past weekend.

The men’s team finished seventh out of eight schools with 391 points, and the women finished 10th out of 11 with 187.5 points.

The meet was highlighted by a sweep for senior individual-medley swimmer Michael White Jr..

He earned first place in the 200-individual medley, the 400-individual medley and the 200-butterfly.

Also seeing the podium for the Bonnies were fellow seniors Preston Schilling, who earned second in the men’s 100-breaststroke and third in the men’s 200-breaststroke, and Matt Goettler, who finished right behind Schilling for third in the 100-breaststroke.

Junior backstroker Devon McFadden finished in second place in the women’s 200-backstroke.

Freshman Austin Childs received third place in the men’s three-meter diving.

Freshman diver Elena Rohr, who dove to a spot in the finals for the women’s one-meter competition, said she was incredibly proud of what she was able to accomplish at A10s.

“As a freshman, being in [a final] was a great experience and something I worked very hard for,” said Rohr.

Junior backstroker and freestyler Matt Taccard said he didn’t perform as well as he had hoped to at A10s, but he was happy he put in some of his best times of the season and made finals for all his events.

Women’s head coach Brian Thomas said he was happy with his team’s results, mostly because some of the swimmers are still a little new to competing in the A10 environment.

Thomas said he was disappointed with the placement of the team in the standings, but they were right there to jump up to eighth place, only six-and-a-half points behind eighth place St. Louis University and five points back of ninth place University of Rhode Island.

On the other hand, he said breaking five school records was a big positive of the meet, and the team’s performance this year will only push it to do better next year and beyond to rise up to the top of the conference.

Rohr, looking at the season as a whole, said the team found success in each meet. She attributed this to the team going into the meets with confidence.

“Brian Thomas, the new head women’s swim coach, really prepared our girls team to be successful,” Rohr said. “He’s made major changes that, although being on the diving side, it is obvious to see.”

Taccard said while the men’s team had some ups and downs throughout the year, in the end it, was a successful season.

“This year’s season was a great training season for us, meaning we worked extremely hard all year and had some outcomes that paid off,” Taccard said.

Thomas said with the season overall, he was impressed with the buy-in of the swimmers to accept the new coach and new training regimen.

He said as a whole, the team’s performances exceeded what the team has been able to do in the past, and he was happy with their dual meet record of 7-5.

More importantly, Thomas highlighted athlete development.

He said the program’s main goal is to first create great people and then great athletes.

Schilling focused on the Bonnies improvements and succcess outside of the pool.

“Our team achieved great success in academics and we had a very close knit group this year,” Schilling said. “We faced many challenges throughout the year and had a bit of a culture shift because of the large freshman class we brought in. While we didn’t achieve what we had hoped for in the pool, I am confident that we will soon be back on top.”

Taccard is looking forward to having his best season for his senior year, and while it will be a challenge for him and his senior classmates to lead the team, it will be a great opportunity.

“Our goal as a team next year is to return to the top of the A-10 Conference, which is where we always are and belong,” Taccard said.

Rohr said the team should perform well next season, as it will be bringing in some fast recruits.

For herself, she is looking ahead to next year’s Atlantic 10 Championship, hoping she can improve upon the success she had in both the one and three-meter diving events.

Now that the team is in the off-season, Taccard said as a Division I athlete, it can be difficult to juggle classwork and practices, so having a few weeks off to just focus on school will be nice.

Once the team returns from spring break, they’ll be getting back in the water.

Rohr said she is looking forward to branching out on campus and try things she wasn’t unable to try when she was in-season.

“I’m most excited to get more involved on campus and do things I didn’t have time to do when I was practicing twice everyday,” Rohr said.

signorra15@bonaventure.edu