In its final home meet of the season, the Massachusetts swim & dive teams both lost to Fordham on Saturday. The Minutemen (1-5, 0-1 Atlantic 10) lost a close one to the Rams (6-1) 148-145. The Minutewomen (4-4, 0-1 A-10) fell to the Rams (8-0) 164-136.
“It was really exciting right from the get-go,” head coach Sean Clark said. “The crowd was loud, we knew that Fordham was going to be ready. And then when Andrew Bell broke the pool record on the 3-meter board, then we knew it was going to be loud all day long.”
The meet against Fordham was the final regular season meet of the year for both teams, and it was also Senior Day for UMass, as 15 swimmers swam their final home meet at the Joseph Rogers pool in Amherst.
“They helped me get through the pandemic with their enthusiasm for each other, for the sport, and for UMass,” Clark said of his seniors. “I was really proud of us being able to push Fordham to the real limit. Even on the women’s side we set a pool record to finish the meet, even though Fordham had climbed ahead of us enough to secure the win.”
Both the Minutemen and Minutewomen trailed throughout the meet on Saturday but continued to compete for the entirety of the afternoon. The UMass men battled through injury with Noah Witt suffering an injury on the first relay, and Sean O’Dell and Wilson Dubois both being out.
“On the men’s side, we were down three guys from illness and injury. So, everybody else had to pull more than their weight and they really did,” Clark said. “It was just a complete team effort, we rallied when we were down. Everyone who needed to did their job.”
The Minutemen had several first-place finishes on the day. UMass finished 1-2-3 in the 500-yard freestyle, with seniors Emerson Kiefer and Colby Vieira finishing first and second, with junior Tyler Roethke finishing third.
UMass dominated the 100 breaststroke with Jack Artis earning the first place finish with a 57.80 time and Freddie Borg finishing second with 58.64.
Eric Eastham was involved in two razor close finishes, losing out on first place in the 200-yard freestyle to Alex Wilhelm of Fordham by two hundredths of a second. In the 200-yard backstroke, Eastham snuck by in a thrilling win over Christian Taylor, winning the event by one hundredth of a second.
UMass nearly swept the diving events, winning three out of the four events on Saturday. Emma Petrovich won the women’s 3-meter board. On the men’s side, Bell continued his dominant season with wins in both the 1-meter and 3-meter board.
The Minutewomen had several strong performances as well. Graduate swimmer Bia Olivieri took home the 200 freestyle with a 1:52.51 time and posted a season-best in the 500 freestyle with a first place finish and 5:02.92 time.
Caroline Mahoney picked up a huge win in the 50-yard freestyle, where she barely edged out Fordham’s Megan Morris by less than half a second. Mahoney also won the 100-yard freestyle event.
“Those couple of spark events really carried through to the rest of the team and it really is setting us up for the taper that we’re going to do,” Clark said. “Come down in training, and we’re getting ready to put on a fancy tech suit and get to a championship pool and throw it all out there.”
Both teams have just under three weeks to prepare for the final meet of the season, the Atlantic 10 championships. The championship will be held from Feb. 15 to Feb. 18 at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
Marco Lopez can be reached at [email protected].
