By Chris McCree

Writer

The women’s swim team suffered a huge loss against Patriot League rival Colgate at Kinney Natatorium this past Saturday. The Bison fell to the Raiders 156-87, which is a dramatic change from the last time the two teams encountered each other. At the last year’s Patriot League Championship, the Bison beat out Colgate for second place.

The Colgate women won every individual event except the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races, both of which Molly Goebel ’11 won. With the loss, the Bison fell to 2-2 in the Patriot League and 4-2 for the year.

Despite the team’s struggles, the Orange and Blue produced several impressive individual performances, including a notable race by freestyler Kelly Pontecorvo ’14. Pontecorvo’s performance during the 1,000 free gave her the fifth fastest time in school history with a time of 10:25.39 seconds. She shaved about two seconds off her previous best time.

Goebel also anchored the 200 freestyle relay, which was comprised of Emily Wright ’14, Kaitlyn Utkewicz ’14 and Elizabeth Porcellio ’13. The four won the relay with a time of 1:37.37, their fastest time of the year. The relay actually only helped to tighten the point margin between the two teams, as Colgate had already clinched the win by the time the race started.

“The team swam well against Colgate,” Goebel said. “They are one of the best teams in the league and they came out very strong.”

The Bison will not encounter Colgate again until the Patriot League Championships in February, and Goebel acknowledged the team has room to improve.

“We did well but know we have our work set out for us in order to accomplish our goals at the end of the season. We are trying to focus on ourselves and what is in our control,” Goebel said. “This was a good test to see where we are and what we still have to do to get to where we want to be in February.”

The team expects to have a good week of practice before it heads off to New Jersey for the Rutgers Invitational. The three-day event will take place from Nov. 19-21 and will feature teams from all over the East Coast.