The Massachusetts swim and dive teams swept its Senior Day meet against Fordham on Saturday in Amherst. The Minutemen (1-5, 1-0 Atlantic 10) earned its first victory of the season over the Rams (3-2, 1-1 A-10) in dominant fashion, 177.5-119.5. The Minutewomen (2-7, 1-2 A-10) escaped with its second straight dual meet win, defeating the Rams (3-3, 1-1 A-10) 151.5-148.5.
“Top to bottom from freshmen to seniors, we really gelled together,” men’s head coach Sean Clark said. “The seniors wanted to send themselves off on Senior Day with some great performances.”
Among both teams, UMass totaled 16 first-place finishes on Saturday. On the men’s side, the Minutemen got off to a blazing hot start with wins in each of their first three swimming events. The relay team of Beau Bengston, Nate Derby, Grant Beebe and Aidan Shepston took first place in the 200-yard medley relay with a 1:33.01 finals time. That was followed up by wins by Jude Boukarroum in the 500-yard freestyle and Sammy Quigg in the 200-yard freestyle.
“[Quigg had] three amazing swims in his individual wins and a really solid anchor on the relay,” Clark said. “[Boukarroum] in the 500-freestyle put the hammer down early and kept us in the game.”
Aydin Erkan finished with a 1:52.71 time to win the gold medal in the 200-yard butterfly. The 50-yard freestyle was taken by Quigg with a 20.76 time. Quigg continued his dominant day in the freestyle events with a victory in the 100-yard freestyle. The UMass men capped off the meet victory with an exclamation point win in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
On the women’s side, the team of Bri Williams, Lindsay Burbage, Ashley Calderon and Courtney Tedesco led the Minutewomen to the gold medal in the 200-yard medley relay. That was followed up by a victory by Sophie Porter in the 500-yard freestyle.
The Minutewomen earned several other key results to hang on for the win, including a win by Burbage in the 100-yard breaststroke, Anna Kwon winning the 200-yard butterfly and Calderon finishing first in the 100-yard butterfly.
The diving boards were dominated by UMass. Andrew Bell swept the men’s diving boards for the Minutemen, taking home first place on both the three-meter with a 429.23 score and the one-meter with a 394.65 score. Khrystyna Yaremyn won the three-meter for the Minutewomen, posting a 270.60 score.
“[Bell is] irreplaceable, his teammates are really good divers and they will continue to develop and blossom,” Clark said. “But [Bell] is essentially a once in a career pick-up. He destroyed his own pool record on the three-meter board, so he’s brought so much excitement to the diving events for us.”
Bell, who is graduating early, was one of eight athletes honored by UMass prior to the start of the swimming events on Saturday. Beebe, Bengston, Nadav Granot, Kwon, Lauren Long, Hannah McIver and Lauren Stott were also honored on Senior Day.
Next up, both teams will return to action on Feb. 19 for the A-10 championships in Hampton, Virginia. The championships are scheduled to be four days long and will conclude on Feb. 22. This season will mark the team’s final A-10 championship with the teams joining the Mid-American Conference next season.
“It’s special, but it’s business as usual,” Clark said. “We’re training to our peak capabilities and really all we want to do is all we can do. We want to represent UMass in the best way possible and try to bring some excitement to the end of the season for us.”
Marco Lopez can be reached at [email protected].
