Last week, the men’s and women’s swim teams competed in the Bucknell Invitational and both took second place. The men’s team finished with 1,229 points and the women’s team with 1,306.5, both right behind Towson.

The Bison men’s team put on an impressive performance on each day of the meet. On the last day of the meet, the 400m freestyle relay school record was broken by John Gehrig ’24, Leo Kuyl ’23, Chris Fabian ’24 and Liam Pitt ’22. “The relay was the last event of the meet, so the energy on the deck was already super high. When we touched the wall first and broke the record, everyone started cheering super loud. Our team could not have asked for a better way to end the meet and go into Thanksgiving break,” Gehrig said. Gehrig also shined in the 100m freestyle, where he had one of the Orange and Blue’s fastest times (44.99) and set a new program time for the 200m butterfly (1:47.63). Chris Kopac ’25 and Kuyl each placed second in individual events. The Bison ended up sending eight swimmers to the ‘A’ finals on the last day and three of the relay teams respectively ended in the top eight.

Similarly, the women’s team had a successful weekend full of stellar performances. Maddie Hartigan ’22 placed first in the 100 freestyle and took .12 of a second off her own time for the 200 freestyle time, 1:48.10. Abby Doss ’24 also beat her own time in the 200 breaststroke, 2:13.44, by shaving over a second off. She is the first Bison to beat 2:14 in the event and second ever to clear 2:15. The Orange and Blue sent eight swimmers to the ‘A’ finals, where Hartigan won the 100 freestyle and placed third in the 1,650 freestyle. In addition, impressive performances were by Skye Sunderhauf ’25, who finished fourth in the 200 butterfly and Alexis Faria ’22, Kayla Lichtner ’24, Sophia Donati ’23 and Hartigan, who placed third in the 400 freestyle relay. 

After a successful three-day meet, the Bison hung up their towels and expect to dive back into the season in the New Year, where both teams will face off against Johns Hopkins on Jan. 8. “The team is excited to get back to training and finish the semester strong both in the pool and in the classroom and we look forward to our training trip in Florida after Christmas,” Gehrig said.