Swimcloud

UMass Sweeps Binghamton

The Massachusetts swimming & diving teams rode the wave of a pair of 20-plus point leads from Friday into steady team victories at home with a number of pool records in sweeping a two-day dual meet with Binghamton on Saturday.

The women’s team improved to 2-1 on the year with a 175-133 victory, which included top times and scores in 15 of the 17 events. The Minutemen obtained their first team win in impressive fashion with a 185.5-122.5 tally and 13 top finishers.

Freshman Meriza Werenski posted the fastest time in three individual races and was part of two relays that touched first. She opened Saturday’s morning session in the 400 individual medley and set the school and pool records, finishing in 4:24.78. She came back in the afternoon swim and swam the fastest 200 breast in pool history at 2:19.19.

Junior Zoe Judd also performed well on the weekend, finishing first in a pair of events Friday – the 200 medley relay and 50 free – before adding the 200 free in a pool record time of 1:52.15, the 200 back and anchoring the 400 free relay to a time of 3:33.58.

Redshirt senior Michaela Butler remained unbeaten on both boards as she added the 1-meter diving crown to last night’s 3-meter medal. The group of Butler, Rachel Dushman, Mikhaila Eckhardt, Rhiannon Froman and Julia Jagannath scored the top five totals inboth diving events this weekend.

“They just swam very well,” women’s coach Bob Newcomb said. “It was solid swims across the board all weekend. It’s a really good sign that we are doing the right things when you think about the upcoming Terrier Invitational and eventually the Atlantic 10 meet, that they can handle six or 7 sessions in a row. This was a step in the right direction.”

Other winners included Jocelyn Yuen in the 200 IM, 200 fly and the 200 medley relay; Cassie Sosnovich in the 100 fly and the 400 free relay; Rebecca Quirie in the 100 back; and Anna Cavanaugh in the 500 free and 400 free relay.

For the Minutemen, junior Hao Luong won gold in the 200 back in 1:53.42 – narrowly out-touching freshman teammate Heath Maginn – the 200 fly, and swam the backstroke leg of Friday’s 200 medley relay as that group won the closest race of the meet by just .04.

Senior Troy Nichols had some solid swims in the meet, highlighted by his come-from-behind win in the 200 IM on Friday before finishing Saturday as part of the winning 400 free relay team.

In the sprint freestyle events, senior Chris Inglis and sophomore Brian Stiles carried the UMass banner as they combined for 1-2 in the 200 and 1-4 in the 100 before accounting for half of the gold-winning 400 free relay. Stiles touched first in the 100 and was second in the 200. Inglis claimed first in the 200 and took fourth in the 100.

Sophomore distance freestyler Alessandro Bomprezzi won the 1000 on Friday and finished second in the 500 on Saturday. He went wire-to-wire in the 1000 with a time of 9:51.57 as eight seconds disappeared from his season-opening swim three weeks ago.

Sophomore Josh Koppel also remained perfect through three dual meets as he won the 1-meter diving on Friday and the 3-meter on Saturday. Freshmen teammates Robert Barry and Nolan Burns each scored a third and fourth place in the two events.

“It is nice for the young team to see the benefit of hard work and get the win under their belt,” men’s coach Russ Yarworth said. “We are continuing to progress how I want us to and our young guys are starting to realize how intense college competition can be.”

On Saturday, UMass will travel to Brown next Saturday, Nov. 9 for a dual meet. The event is scheduled to begin at Noon in the two-year-old Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.

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