On Nov. 20-22, the men’s swimming and diving team hosted Binghamton, Buffalo, Connecticut, Fordham, Georgetown, La Salle, Delaware, and William & Mary for the three-day Bucknell Invitational, placing fourth. William & Mary finished in first with 1597 points.

As for the Bison’s performance in this year’s Invitational, Chris Devlin ’18 said, “the team performed very well, as we faced off against some high quality competition. We had numerous season-best times, and possibly even some lifetime bests.”

The Bison were in fourth place after the conclusion of the first day. Despite a fourth-place finish, the team boasted six top-10 finishers. Louis Behnen ’17, one of those top-10 finishers, took third among 51 swimmers in the 500 free with a time of 4:31.74. Denver Freeman ’17 became a top-10 finisher in the same event after coming in seventh place. Other individuals who finished in the top 10 were Steve Grune ’16, who took eighth in the 50-free with a time of 21.12, and Devlin, who finished tenth in the 200-IM.

Devlin, Sam Mackie ’17, Triston Loux ’18, and Jack Robinson ’17 each added to the list of top-10 finishers by taking sixth place among 24 others in the 400-medley relay. In another relay, JT Nangle ’16, Grune, Loux, and Charlie McFarland ’19 finished in the top 10 in the 200-free relay after boasting a time of 1:24.87.

At the end of the second day, the Orange and Blue remained in fourth place. The Bison’s fourth-place standing at the end of the day on Saturday was due in large part to several stellar individual and team performances. On Nov. 21 Devlin placed in the top 10 in three events. Individually, Devlin finished fifth in the 100 backstroke and seventh in the 400 IM. Behnen came in fourth in the 400 IM. Robinson also added to the group of impressive individual efforts by coming in sixth in the 200 free with a time of 1:41.37 after having qualified for the finals with a time of 1:41.11 in the prelims.

Two relay teams for the Bison also finished in the top 10 on Saturday. The 200 medley relay team, consisting of Devlin, Mackie, Loux, and Grune finished seventh. Additionally, the 800 free relay team, which includes Robinson, Behnen, Sam Rutan ’18, and Freeman, took fourth-place in that event.

With 777.5 points, the Bison ultimately finished in fourth-place in the Invitational, owing in part to other stellar performances by Devlin on Nov. 22, the last day of the Invitational. Devlin finished first in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:46.16. That time was a full second faster than Devlin’s time in this event at this point in the season last year. Alongside with Robinson, McFarland, and Behnen, Devlin was also part of the Bison’s performance in the 400 free relay, in which the Orange and Blue finished third.

As for the team’s diving performance, Tyler Wenzel ’16 placed 11th in the 1-meter dive and Patrick Alvermann ’16 placed 12th in the 3-meter dive.

After this past weekend’s Invitational, the Bison will now prepare for the second half of their season.

“Now, we enter a crucial point in the season as we have to refocus and reset while we train through the holiday season. Everyone is getting back into the training mode, and really focusing on finishing up the academic semester strong, while still attempting to train hard. It is a tough stretch, but the work we are doing now really pays off come championship season in February. We’re looking forward to getting back in the groove and making the second half of our season even better than the first,” Devlin said.

The Orange and Blue will swim against Army West Point on Jan. 9 and Colgate Jan. 10.