The Bison men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams hosted defending Coastal Collegiate Sports Association men’s champion University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) on Oct. 1. The non-scored dual meet gave the Bison an opportunity to experiment with different lineups and to see the first-years participate in a collegiate competition for the first time.

Competing for the men’s team, Charlie McFarland ’19 and Chadd Cummings ’19 had strong showings: McFarland won the 100-yard individual medley at 55.12 seconds and Cummings won the 100-yard breaststroke at 57.82 seconds. Cummings also enjoyed a second place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. Louis Behnen ’17 had a good showing, finishing in second place in both the 200-yard freestyle, in which he holds the University’s record, and the 400-yard individual medley. Jack Robinson ’17, Chris Devlin ’18, McFarland, and Behnen placed second in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Bison took second place in the 200-yard medley relay, comprised of Robinson, Cummings, James Elmendorf ’19, and Matt McGoey ’20.

“It was our first chance to get up and race this year in a meet setting, so that was exciting. Our energy throughout was awesome, which is something we wanted to do to start off the year strong,” Devlin said.

While the men’s team captured two first-place finishes, the women’s team enjoyed more success by capturing 10 first-place finishes. Similar to the men’s team, the sophomores set the tone winning six of their 10 first-place finishes. Julie Byrne ’19 won first-place in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:05.63 minutes, beating out teammate Emma Hadley ’20, and the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 1:02.18 minutes. Brittany Bishop ’19 won first place in the 200-yard freestyle and 50-yard freestyle with times of 1:56.47 minutes and 24.78 seconds, respectively. Following Bishop in the 200 were her teammates Katherine O’Shea ’20 and Caroline Edelman ’18 to complete a sweep of the event.

“The highlight of the meet was being able to get up and race again with everyone and seeing the first-years compete in their first collegiate meet,” Edelman said. “This meet is just a starting point for our competitive season, so I look forward to watching how everyone improves as we get closer to championships,” Edelman said.

Along with her individual wins, Byrne, along with Libby O’Hare ’20, Julianna Foss ’18, and Rachel McGoff ’17 won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:48.16 minutes. Other first-place winners include Lindsay Smalec ’19 in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 59.55 seconds, O’Hare in the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 30.81 seconds, and Christine Kehrli ’18 in the 3-meter dive with a score of 215.55.

The Bison will return for their home meet Oct. 15 to take on Richmond and Boston University.