UB men's and women's swimming weekly release

Men Rally Past Pitt, Women Fall in Season Openers

The University at Buffalo men's and women's swimming and diving teams opened the dual meet schedule on Friday afternoon splitting their meets at Pittsburgh. The UB men toppled the Panthers, 127-116, while the UB women dropped a 165.5-77.5 decision. The men's win was the first ever against a Big East program.

Final Relay Decides Men's Meet

The UB men (1-0) scored a crucial victory in the meet's final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, to claim the meet. UB relayers finished first and third scoring 13 of the available 17 points. The top UB relay squad of Jared Heine, Simon Proudfoot, Mike Dugan and Matt Hogan won the race in 3:06.01, nearly four seconds ahead of the Panthers. UB's B squad of Tommy Steele, Ryan Smrekar, Sterling Gell and Cory Zorsch turned in a 3:10.77 clocking for the third-place finish. Besides the victory in the final relay, the Bulls claimed wins in six additional men's events on the 13-event slate. Heine won the 50-yard freestyle in 21.35 with Hogan taking the 100-yard freestyle in 46.63. Eric Culver won the 1,000-yard freestyle in 9:40.46 while Andrew Tanzey won the 200-yard individual medley in 1:54.92.

Men's Divers Sweep Springboards

The Bulls swept the men's diving competitions with Colin Patrican taking the one-meter springboard with 337.65 points and Kenny Rhoades winning the three-meter event with 323.03 points. Rhoades won the three-meter competition by a mere four points over Pitt's Collin Forner.

Simmons Paces Women's Team

For the UB women (0-1), Caroline Simmons won two sprint freestyle races and anchored a winning relay squad. Simmons won the 50-yard freestyle in 23.85 and later won the 100-yard freestyle in 52.08. Simmons anchored the 400-yard freestyle relay to a victory. She was preceded into the water by Karly Moore, Jessie Koltz and Jordan Deren.

Andy's Assessment

Head coach Andy Bashor was pleased with his team's performances in Pittsburgh. "We had a great meet against Pitt. It was a very big win for the men to travel to Pitt and beat them. We had outstanding races and won a lot of the close races," said Bashor. "Our women came up short but raced really well. We saw a lot of improvement from last week and that is what we want to see. Improvement week to week."

They're at the 'Gate

Both squads face Colgate next Saturday, October 23, in Hamilton. "We have another tough weekend with Colgate, especially for the women," said Bashor." "I want to set them up with challenges throughout the season so we are ready to perform at our best for our championships. We will be ready."