Men's Swimming and Diving Blog - Mitch Buccalo - Bucknell University Athletics

Bison Swim & Dive Blog
- Mitch Buccalo

New year, same focus. That's the current mindset of Bucknell Swim and Dive as we welcome 2017. We started the year right with morning practice on Jan. 2, the first official practice of training camp. With classes not starting until the 17^th, the student population on campus was extremely low. This gave us some quality time with the pool to get ready for the latter half of the season. After two extremely solid weeks of training, we capped off training camp with a Friday meet against Loyola and a Saturday meet against Army (Jan. 13-14), both at Kinney Natatorium. We got the job done on Friday by picking up the win for both men and women, but fell short on Saturday on both sides.

However, our loss against Army was not something to mourn over; we had multiple season-best times and truly saw the work during training trip and training camp pay off. Mindset wise, the Bison men and women are hungry to win close races and show the Patriot League their speed in the water and prowess on the boards.

Second semester started on Tuesday the 17^th and was quickly followed by a Saturday dual meet against Lehigh. We had a large showing at Kinney for it was Senior Day. Although the class of five men and six women graduating in the spring is not large, we're losing talented swimmers, respected leaders, and huge personalities in this class. In their final Patriot League dual meet, the seniors led the team in close races against Lehigh. The men won in solid fashion, however the women fell just short to Lehigh.

Both teams, however, have moved onto the upcoming weekend, where the Bison will compete in their last regular season meets before championships. Friday we'll be hosting West Virginia men and women, and Saturday we'll be hosting the Bison Invite; one last hill before champs!

Signing off for now, GO BISON!