Bucknell University Athletics
2012-13 Bucknell Men's Swimming and Diving Season Gets Underway Saturday at UMBC
9/27/2012 8:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Sept. 27, 2012
LEWISBURG, Pa. –The Bucknell men's swimming and diving team will begin its 57th season of competition this Saturday at UMBC. The unscored meet, which will feature different distances in events than typically seen during the remainder of the year, will begin at 1 p.m. at UMBC Natatorium. It is the sixth consecutive season the Bison and Retrievers have kicked off the campaign against each other.
Bucknell, which posted a 7-2 overall dual meet record in 2011-12, was picked to finish second in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. The Bison garnered one first place vote and was selected to finish behind only nine-time defending champion Navy.
Bucknell will spend the early portion of its 2012-13 campaign on the road as it begins the season with three consecutive road meets. However, the Bison will go on the road just once after Nov. 16 as they prepare to host the 2013 Patriot League Championships at Kinney Natatorium. It will mark the sixth time the facility has hosted the conference championships.
Bucknell will be idle for three weeks following Saturday's meet before it travels to Connecticut Oct. 20 for its first scored meet of the year.
Below is a more detailed season outlook for Bucknell:
Bucknell is picked to finish in second place in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. It's a position the Bison have claimed four times in head coach Dan Schinnerer's first six seasons on the pool deck. However, in 2013, Bucknell will have to have some new names step up for the Bison to keep their spot near the top of the Patriot League standings.
“We graduated a big senior class and lost a lot of points on paper,” mentioned Schinnerer, a two-time Patriot League Men's Swimming Coach of the Year. “We have a big freshman class coming in. It's talented. It has the ability to step in and fill a big piece of the void, but we also need our returning guys to step up. We need individuals to step up and take that No. 1 spot in a number of events that was held by someone who graduated last year.
“It's going to be a different feel on the team this year. A lot of the guys that graduated were contributors from day one. It will be difficult, but it's exciting to see the new faces.”
Bucknell's 2012 senior class was a large and talented one. The eight-member class - Thomas Brown, Gonzalo DeLeon, Nathaniel Frye, Taylor Harris, Stephen McMillin, Evan Palumbo, Matthew Segar and Eric Sokolosky - combined for 15 All-Patriot League certificates, 48 top-10 finishes at the Patriot League Championships and 23 individual program top-10 marks, including a pair of school records.
While that impressive list of accomplishments is gone, plenty of talent remains. The returning Bison have combined for nine All-Patriot League honors, 35 top-10 finishes at the Patriot League Championships and 26 individual program top-10 marks, including three school records.
Expected to lead the way in 2012-13 are returning All-Patriot League selections Mike Nicholson, Christian Treat, Erik Heinemann and Billy Krause. Nicholson, Treat and Krause have each been recognized multiple times with All-League citations. Treat and Krause, both seniors, were voted team captains along with classmate Matthew Stevens and junior Trevor Reitz.
Sprint Freestyle: Four-time All-Patriot League selection Sokolosky is gone, but the cupboard is certainly not bare. Reitz, senior Bryce Suchomel and junior Daniel Wallace should be big contributors.
Reitz owns program top-10 times in both the 50 and 100 free and scored in both events, in addition to the 100 fly, at last year's Patriot League Championships. He is no longer a member of the Bucknell men's water polo team and is devoting all his athletic efforts to swimming.
Suchomel scored in the 50 free at Patriots last year, while Wallace scored in the 100, 200 and 500 free at the ECAC Championships.
“Soko was obviously a big loss,” explained Schinnerer. “But the returning guys all had great seasons. Danny Wallace, especially, had a great end of the season and I hope that will translate to this year.”
Schinnerer also thinks freshmen Steve Grune, Cameron James and Chris Ortiz, in addition to the versatile Treat and junior Matt Hadley, could add depth.
Mid/Distance Freestyle: “Like most disciplines, there will be seven or eight swimmers in the mix here,” said Schinnerer, who likes to have versatile swimmers on his teams.
Behind Segar, the mid-distance freestyle group was relatively young last year, which should help this season. Hadley, Wallace and James will swim the 200, while sophomores George Beatty, Collin Greene and Erik Heinemann will swim the 500 free and longer distances.
All three of those swimmers competed in the 500 at the Patriot League Championships with Heinemann's ninth-place finish topping the group, while Beatty (6th) and Greene (9th) finished in the top 10 of the 1,650 free at the league meet.
Heinemann followed his rookie season at Bucknell with a trip to the U.S. Olympic Trials, where he swam the 200 fly.
“The Olympic Trials were part of a progression he is on,” commented Schinnerer about Heinemann's summer experience that he shared with Nicholson (400 IM), current women's team member Emily Norton (200 breast) and 2012 graduate Segar (200 free). “It was a good next step for him as he continues to improve.”
In addition to the veterans, Schinnerer expects freshmen Jeff Shanley and Brian Phillips to add quality depth to the distance events.
Backstroke: There are plenty of spaces to fill and a lot of opportunities since the Bison lost Brown, DeLeon and Harris to graduation. Hadley and Suchomel, a PL scorer in the 100 back, will fill the 100, while Schinnerer thinks freshmen Wes Marberry, JT Nangle and Will Rappaport have potential and could factor in as well.
“Backstroke is definitely an area where we will need people to step up, perhaps more than any other event,” said Schinnerer. “Billy Krause has dabbled in the back and he could see some opportunities too.”
Breaststroke: “While we did lose a lot across all events, we didn't lose too much at breaststroke,” mentioned Schinnerer. “This will be a really strong event for us.”
Leading the way will be Treat, who recorded second-place finishes in both the 100 and 200 breast at Patriots en route to his first career First Team All-Patriot League certificate after a pair of second-team honors.
Tim Perley, who showed some promise as a freshman last year, and Stevens, who has been consistent throughout his career, will also see time at breast.
Additionally, Nicholson, who ranks No. 2 in program history in the 200 breast, will swim it some. However, Schinnerer notes that Nicholson is so valuable elsewhere that he won't often swim it. Schinnerer does know Nicholson will make the most of his chances after seeing him win the event each of the four times he swam it in 2011-12.
Junior Marshall Lambert, who competed at the ECAC Championships in 2012, will add depth at both breaststroke distances.
Butterfly: Reitz, who ranks seventh in program history in the 100 fly, and Suchomel will be the main names in the 100, while the deeper pool of Heinemann, Krause, Nicholson and senior Mike Davitt will swim the 200.
Schinnerer notes that Heinemann didn't swim the fly much as a freshman, but that he will likely be utilized more, likely at both the 100 and 200 distances. Additionally, Grune will swim the 100, adding to the depth behind Reitz, who finished 12th at the Patriot League meet in the event.
Nicholson is the school record holder in the 200 fly and he has two career Patriot League Championships finals appearances in the event, even though it is not necessarily his primary focus.
Junior Edward Jew will also add some experience and depth to both fly distances.
IM: While Nicholson, the owner of three school records (200 fly, 200 IM, 400 IM) and five program top-10 marks, can swim virtually any event, his real forte is the IM races. He set both school records at the 2011 Patriot League Championships and has finished in the top two of both events twice at the conference meet, winning the gold medal in the 400 IM as a freshman in 2011.
“The IMs are Mike's best events because he is such a good all-around swimmer,” explained Schinnerer. “By training him to be a 400 IMer you cover pretty much all your bases.”
Treat, who held the school record in the 200 IM briefly before Nicholson, will continue to be an asset there, while Krause ranks in the top five of both IM events and has scored in each distance three times at the conference meet.
Schinnerer also forecasts Stevens to swim the 200 and Heinemann the 400, while he thinks Rappaport could be in the lineup at both distances.
Relays: Bucknell's relays will look considerably different in 2012-13 than from anytime in the recent past. Brown, Frye, Harris, Segar and Sokolosky dominated the relays over the last few years, but all have graduated. Instead, Schinnerer will have to find new names to slide into a number of the relays alongside holdovers Treat, Reitz and Suchomel.
“The relays are indicative of how we will do this year,” predicted Schinnerer. “They are going to look very different and if they are still right up there challenging school records and posting top-three finishes at the conference meet, then that is a byproduct of us developing. If our relays take a step back, then we are probably not where we want to be as a team.”
Diving: Sophomore Jon Jones, who gained the experience of competing at the Patriot League Championships last February, is the lone returning diver for the Bison. However, he will be joined by freshmen Patrick Alverman and Tyler Wenzel.
“We are excited to have three guys on the boards again for the first time in a number of years,” said Schinnerer. “We are going to have to see some development from the young group.”
