On Feb. 19, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams traveled to Annapolis, Md. for the Patriot League Championship. The women secured second place with 533 points and the men finished fourth with 342.5 points.

The first day of competition for the women was successful, as they remained in second with 86 points. For the 3-meter dive, Paige Schoelkopf ’20, Alaina Schumann ’21 and Naomi Douek ’23 scored for the Bison. In the 800m freestyle, Maddie Hartigan ’22, Emily Gorham ’21, Sophia Donati ’23 and Abby Merriman ’20 all earned a bronze medal with a 7:19:76 time.

Day one for the men began with a fifth-place standing of 56 points, two points behind the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. For the 800m freestyle, Christian Stef ’23, Matt McGoey ’20, Sean Quinn ’22 and Mitch Gavars ’21 secured fourth with a 6:36:46 time.

Sean Quinn, the Raleigh, North Carolina native, said the team’s mindset is the same every year.

“We know we have put the work in necessary to succeed at championships,” said Quinn. “We had a great regular season and we wanted to use our momentum to finish the year.”

In the 200m medley relay, Jack Rose ’22, Ryaan Hatoum ’23, Jacob Lubinski ’21 and Leo Kuyl ’23 set the Bison’s fourth-fastest time with 1:30:18.

On the second day, the work of Hartigan and Maggie Wyngowski ’21 – both earning silver medals – allowed the Bison to hold on to its second-place standing. Day two totaled 191 points for the women. In the 500 freestyle, Hartigan shattered her own personal record with an NCAA “B” cut time of 4:46:48.

This new time earned Hartigan her third Patriot League medal and second silver for this event. Wyngowski broke down barriers also, breaking a school record held since 2014 with a 2:00.15 and earning second place. For the 500m freestyle, Hartigan took second while teammate Sabrina Vumbacco ’23 captured third.

Day two also saw the Bison men rise to fourth place. For the 200m individual medley, McGoey finished fifth and Quinn finished seventh. The 400m medley relay team clinched fifth with the performance of Rose, Hatoum, Lubinski and Kuyl. A strong showing for the 50 freestyle included a sixth-place finish by Leo Kuyl, while Quinn finished seventh in the 200 IM. Quinn’s 1:49.58 time marked as fifth-best in school history. Kuyl’s time landed as sixth-best in the University’s history with a time of 20.49.

The third day was a balanced effort from the women with 16 different Bison scoring points. Hartigan set another school record in the 200m freestyle while finishing in third place.

Consistency was key for the men on day three, as they remained in fourth place. McGoey performed in all aspects, finishing seventh in the 400m IM and fifth in the 200m freestyle relay, alongside teammates Kuyl, Matt Mills ’23 and Rose. Kuyl set the fifth-fastest time and led the team in the 50m freestyle with a 20.39.

The Bison took home individual awards as well. Dan Schinnerer was named Patriot League Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year and Vumbacco was titled the Patriot League Rookie of the Meet. The team collected a gold medal, two silver medals and six bronze medals.

The men finished in fourth place with 342.5 points. The strong performance from McGoey, Mills, Rose and Kuyl clinched them a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle relay. The squad clocked yet another school-record time of 2:59.19, becoming the first to post a time under three minutes. Kuyl and Mills both competed in the 100m freestyle, finishing third (44.91) and fourth (44.94) respectively. Gavars placed fifth in the 1,650 freestyle. Seven men placed in the top 10 with the fastest times in school history within their respective events. The 400m freestyle relay squad finished third (2:59.19) as point scorers for the weekend.

Quinn says that the team’s motivation came from the desire to compete at max potential.

“A large amount of our team’s motivation comes from our desire to perform at the highest level, not only to reach out individual goals, but to represent our team as a whole in the best way possible. The Patriot League is getting faster every year, with multiple teams on the rise, so we knew that doing the same work as last year wouldn’t cut it – we had to do more and I think it paid off.”

The Bison men and women travel back to Annapolis, Md. on Feb. 27 for the Navy Long Course Meet, and the ECAC Championships on Feb. 28 to March 1.