The St. Bonaventure Men’s Swimming & Diving team seeks it second consecutive conference title while the Richmond women look for their fourth straight at the 2014 Atlantic 10 Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving Championships, to be held Feb. 19-22 at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
The St. Bonaventure men will look for their fifth overall A-10 Swimming & Diving Championship after capturing the team title at last year’s championship with a total of 688 points.
Key performers for the Bonnies are swimmers Vatslav Lets and Viachelsav Shchukin. Lets was honored as the Most Outstanding Performer at the 2013 Championship after setting the new Atlantic 10 Conference record for gold medals in a championship meet with eight, along with setting individual event records in the 200-yard Backstroke and the 500-yard Freestyle. Shchukin, the A-10 Most Outstanding Rookie Performer at last year’s championship, currently leads the A-10 in both the 50-yd freestyle (20.42) and the 100-yd freestyle (43.66).
Also contending for the men's title will be last year’s runner-up and winner of six of the last seven A-10 championships, Massachusetts, along with Fordham, George Mason, George Washington, La Salle and Saint Louis.
On the Women’s side, Richmond will look to claim its 12th A-10 championship in the last 13 years at this year’s championship. The Spiders are led by senior Mali Kobelja. Kobelja, the 2013 A-10 Most Outstanding Performer, currently leads the A-10 in the 200-yd individual medley with a time 2:01.78.
Also in pursuit on the women’s side is the Minutewomen of Massachusetts. The Minutwomen, coming off last year’s second-place finish, are led by senior diver Michale Butler and junior Zoe Judd. Butler leads the A-10 this season in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives, while Judd paces the A-10 in the 50-yd freestyle, the 100-yd freestyle and the 400-yd freestyle.
Joining Massachusetts and Richmond in search of this year’s championship is Duquesne, Fordham, George Mason, George Washington, La Salle, Rhode Island, St. Bonaventure and Saint Louis.
The Championship begins at 3:30pm on Wednesday, Feb. 19, with the trials of the men's one-meter diving competition, followed by the finals of the men's and women's 200-yard medley and 800-yard freestyle relays at 6:30pm, along with the finals of the men's one-meter diving competition. The Championship continues at 10:30am on Thursday with preliminaries, followed by the finals at 6:30pm. The same schedule will be followed on Friday and Saturday.
For complete coverage of the 2014 Atlantic 10 Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving Championships, log onto Championships Central for results, photos and links to the live web stream.
