The Massachusetts swim and dive teams were both defeated by Boston University on Saturday afternoon in Boston. It was a competitive afternoon of competition at the FitRec Competition Pool, that ultimately resulted in the Minutemen (0-2) losing to the Terrier men (3-1, 2-1 Patriot League) 169-131 and the Minutewomen (0-2) falling short to the Terrier women (2-2, 1-2 Patriot League) by a score of 155.5-142.5.
“This was a perfect way to prepare for the Terrier invite,” men’s head coach Sean Clark said. “We did some really challenging training this week, so we just wanted to see what the results would be without taking any rest.”
On the women’s side, the meet was close and came down to the final events to determine the winner. Ultimately, the BU women pulled away with key wins in the women’s one-meter board, women’s 200 individual medley and the women’s 400 freestyle relay to seal the win against UMass.
For the Minutemen, they finished the meet off strong despite the loss with a first place finish in the men’s 400 freestyle relay with a team of Aidan Shepston, Juan Montori, Alonso Montori and Sammy Quigg. The win in the 400 freestyle relay for UMass was over four seconds quicker than the second-place BU team, finishing with a 3:06.04 finals time.
Both sides came away with several wins in its second dual meet of the season. Quigg continued a strong season with two individual first place finishes in the men’s 100 freestyle and the men’s 200 freestyle. Quigg previously secured two first place finishes and broke a UMass pool record in the men’s 50 freestyle earlier this season in the Boston College meet.
“[Quigg] continues to sizzle,” Clark said. “He had a season-best in the 200 free in a win, and then he anchored another fantastic relay to finish the meet and let us go out on a high note.”
The Minutewomen earned several first place finishes, notably starting off strong with a win in the women’s 200 medley relay with the team of Bri Williams, Lindsay Burbage, Anna Kwon and Elizabeth Lahmann. Kwon won the women’s 200 freestyle with a close win over the Terriers’ Stella Langenbach, edging out Langenbach by 16 milliseconds. Burbage also added individual wins in the breaststroke events, taking first in the women’s 100 breaststroke and women’s 200 breaststroke.
Both the Minutemen and Minutewomen dominated the boards, with diver Andrew Bell continuing to make history. Bell broke both BU pool records with a 429.23 score on the three-meter and a 399.60 score on the one-meter. Bell has had a dominant past year of diving, breaking the pool records at Colgate earlier in the season, winning Atlantic 10 Most Outstanding Diver of the Year and competing in the U.S. Diving Olympic Trials earlier this year.
“Bell continues to excel beyond expectations,” Clark said. “Not only did he win, but he broke both pool records and that’s what he had done when we went to Colgate. He’s leaving his name on the board throughout the northeast United States.”
The UMass women were also strong on the boards, with Shreeya Sinha claiming gold on the three-meter with a 304.88 score. Sinha and Salem Howes earned second and third place respectively on the one meter. Sinha’s performances were historic as well, having her three meter score rank sixth in the UMass all-time record book and her one meter score ranking fifth all-time.
Moving forward, both teams will continue to escalate their intensity during workouts in order to prepare for the upcoming meets later in the season.
“[We’re] really trying to maximize our time in the pool and also maintain our physicality with time in the weight room,” Clark said. “We have dry land activities three times a week and then we have some spinning that we do on a regular basis. On both the men and women, we’re continuing to push bodies to grow and be more capable of swimming fast on a regular basis.”
Both teams return to action at the Terrier Invitational, which will take place between Friday, Nov. 22 and Sunday, Nov. 24. The invitational hosted by BU, will also include Boston College, Fairfield, NJIT, Bryant diving and Babson College diving.
Marco Lopez can be reached at [email protected].
