Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Navy
Bucknell Men's Swimming and Diving Goes 1-1 vs. American and Navy
11/3/2012 8:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Nov. 3, 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Junior swimmer Mike Nicholson won three events and freshman diver Tyler Wenzel set two Bucknell top-10 marks as the Bison men's swimming and diving team split a double dual against host American and Navy at Reeves Pool. Bucknell doubled up the homestanding Eagles 196-98 and lost to the Mids 187-108.
Two-time All-Patriot League selection Nicholson captured the 200 breast (+0.88), 200 fly (+1.17) and 200 IM (+3.01) by a combined 5.06 seconds as he posted three of Bucknell's four individual victories in the meet that was originally supposed to be hosted by Lafayette, but moved to American in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
Sophomore Ben Seketa earned the Bison's other win, finishing first in the 100 breast. He was also fourth in the 200 breast and one spot behind Nicholson in the 200 IM.
Wenzel led a strong showing by the Bucknell divers. He was fourth off the one-meter board with a career-best score of 245.30 to rank sixth in program history. His score of 245.55 off the three-meter placed him third in the meet and seventh in the Bison record books. Classmate Patrick Alverman also posted a top-10 mark (No. 7 - 226.45) off the one-meter board en route to a fifth-place showing.
Bucknell's youth shined through in the meet as in six of the 14 individual events the Bison's top finisher was a freshman, and only once was a senior (Billy Krause sixth in the 500 free) the team's top finisher.
"I thought that overall the team had another solid outing today," said Bucknell seventh-year head coach Dan Schinnerer. "We really emphasize making improvement from week to week and meet to meet at this point in the season and we definitely saw improvement in a number of areas from a number of people. Our biggest goals are more long term at this point and we just want to keep making steps forward.
"Navy is the defending league champion, so we had a chance to measure ourselves against the best in our conference today. I thought we raced well and competed hard throughout the course of the meet. We really appreciate American putting together the competition at the last minute when Lafayette had to withdraw from hosting the meet."
"In addition to the individuals who scored victories for us, I thought we had some very strong performances from our freshmen today," praised Schinnerer. "Chris Ortiz and Brian Phillips both showed good improvement and had a number of good performances today."
Ortiz was third in the 100 free, fifth in the 200 free and seventh in the 50 free, while Phillips was fifth in the 1,000 free and eighth in the 500 free.
Bucknell's (2-2) next scheduled competition is in two weeks when it hosts the Bucknell Invitational Nov. 16-18 at Kinney Natatorium. Prelims each day are scheduled for 10 a.m., while finals are slated for 6 p.m.
