The University of Massachusetts men’s swimming and diving team got in on this weekend’s Ram bashing with a 153-87 thrashing of Fordham.
The win wrapped up a solid Saturday for every Maroon and White battalion that faced off with pesky Rhode Island. The men’s basketball and women’s swimming and diving teams also cruised to easy wins over the Rams on the afternoon.
The Minutemen (10-4) won nine of the 13 events on Saturday en route to the victory. This was the last dual meet of the season for the Maroon and White.
Freshman Logan Alomar was the only Minuteman to pick up multiple individual victories as he won both the one and three-meter diving events. Alomar tallied a score of 265.2 in the one-meter and 268.5 in the three-meter. It was the third time this season that the freshman from Silver Spring, Md. has won both events.
In the pool it was a balanced effort for UMass as five different Minutemen notched first place finishes.
“We try and base our success on depth,” said UMass head coach Russ Yarworth. “We have a few star performers but they can’t win a championship on their own, it has to be a total team effort.”
Tommy Keane led a triumvirate of sophomores who picked up victories for UMass. Keane took the 500-meter freestyle in a time of 4:50.85. It’s the third consecutive meet that Keane has picked up a victory.
Other sophomore winners for the Minutemen were Chad Arnold in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:48.81 and Scott Peterson in the 1000 freestyle. Peterson finished in a time of 10:24.95 to pick up his first victory of the year.
Senior Chris Arsenault once again was victorious for the Maroon and White as he took the 200-meter Individual Medley in 1:54.99. Arsenault, the four-time Atlantic 10 Performer of the Week, has won at least one event in each of UMass’ meets this season.
Billy Brown rounded out the Minuteman winners by taking the 200-meter breathstroke. Brown, a senior from Fullerton, CA, clocked in with a time of 2:09.64 to win the event for the second consecutive meet.
Once more, the UMass relay teams came up big as they took both relay events of the day. In the 400-meter medley relay it was a quartet of seniors who swam past the Rams. Arsenault, Brown and fellow seniors Joe Martin and Mike Sabina, the only four seniors on the Minuteman squad, combined to finish with a time of 3:31.65.
Sabina, Arsenault and Arnold were also in on the UMass triumph in the 400-meter freestyle relay. These three combined with junior Ryan Fisher to win the event with a time of 3:11.25.
“The relays are what our team really gets behind,” said Yarworth. “If we can get out and do well in those and get the 40 points then we usually do well.”
In their last dual meet before the Atlantic 10 Championships the Minutemen were looking to get back on track and pick up some positive momentum.
“I think it was really important for us to do well,” said Keane. “It gives us a lot of confidence heading into A-10’s and hopefully we’ll be able to keep it going.”
The Minutemen return to action on Friday as they compete at the University of Connecticut Husky Invitational. This two-day meet will be the final tune up for UMass before the A-10’s which are held Feb. 15-17 in Buffalo, N.Y.