By Cooper Sutton
Sports Editor
Mike Nicholson ’14 transcended his team’s third-place finish in this past weekend’s Patriot League Championships in Kinney Natatorium, setting new school records in the 200 and 400 meter individual medleys. Navy won the championship for the eighth consecutive year.
“Getting a team record [at Bucknell] is a huge honor considering all of the great swimmers that have swam here,” Nicholson said. “Winning the 400 IM was probably the biggest thrill of my life.”
Nicholson’s record-breaking performance in the 200 IM secured him third place in the event, but by winning the 400 IM, he became the first first-year in four years to win an individual event in the Patriot League Championships.
Thomas Brown ’12 set another school record in the 200-meter backstroke. In the prelims he swam a record time of 1:48.04, coming in third for that event. In the finals, he finished in second with a 1:48.95.
Matthew Segar ’12, Christian Treat ’13, Trevor Reitz ’14 and Eric Sokolosky ’12 combined to break a third Bison record in the 400 free relay. With a time of 3:00.87 the team came in second place.
Overall, in the three-day championships, the Bison recorded program top-ten times in an outstanding 17 events.
The series of top-ten records did not help the team compete with Navy, who beat the Bison by 490 points. Navy finished the meet in first by far with 1056 points. The battle for second was much more competitive, Army finishing in front of the Bison by 37.5 points. Army finished with 603.5 to the Orange and Blue’s 566.
“Our main goal heading into the meet was to beat Army for second place,” Nicholson said. “Our meet was far from a failure though. We saw many team records drop, on both the swimming and diving sides of the meet, and we ravaged the top-10 lists in many events.”
The winter season for the team as a whole ended this past week, but the ECAC Championships will take place this weekend for those swimmers privileged enough to qualify.
The team will be motivated in future seasons by the results of the championships. “Getting third was definitely a disappointment, but I know it will only motivate us in the spring and next year to make sure we don’t lose to those kids again,” Nicholson said.
