Lauren Boone
Sports Editor
The men’s swimming and diving team won 165-91 in its first scored meet of the season against George Washington on Oct. 19. Louis Behnen ’17 led the Bison, winning three events. Teammate Mike Nicholson ’14 supported Behnen’s lead, claiming two more first-place finishes for the Orange and Blue.
The team claimed first place in every event during the meet. Eight Bison claimed individual titles, showing their strength across the board.
“GW is a competitive team, so to be able to win all 16 events against them was a real accomplishment,” Nicholson said. “We saw some of the younger guys really step up in some big spots and put up impressive times for this early in the season.”
Behnen played a particularly strong role for the team, winning the 200 back, 500 free, and 1,000 free. He swam a time of 9:36.33 in the 1,000 freestyle, the third best time in program history. Behnen touched the wall a solid 16 seconds before the second-place finisher.
“I was more focused on race strategy and pace during this meet than my end time, because that’s the most important thing to focus on this early in the season,” Behnen said. “Other members of the team also stepped up and did well when we needed points.”
Nicholson also contributed to the Bison victory, claiming first in both the 200 fly and the 200 breast. Among the other first-place finishers were Chris Ortiz ’16 (200 free), Will Rappaport ’16 (100 back), Ben Seketa ’15 (100 breast), Steve Grune ’16 (50 free), Trevor Reitz ’14 (100 free), and Erik Heinemann ’15 (100 fly). The Orange and Blue also performed well in the relay events.
“Our relays are showing a lot of depth which gives us some much needed flexibility for the dual meet season,” Nicholson said. “We also showed a lot of strength in the backstroke events, which has been a weak point for us in the past. While we are happy with our results, we’ve quickly moved on to focusing on our next meet this weekend against Pittsburgh. It’s our first meet against an ACC [Atlantic Coast Conference] team in a long time, which, in addition to being homecoming weekend, should be a great environment for us to really measure ourselves against top competition in an exciting environment.”
The Bison will return to the lanes of the Kinney Natatorium tomorrow at 1 p.m. where they will host Pittsburgh.
