Merry Christmas

I would like to wish all of the SBU Men's Swimming Family a safe and enjoyable Christmas and Holiday Season. The team was released yesterday to head home amidst some challenging Western, New York weather conditions but all made it home safely. I know this spurs the thought process among our alums as the spceial times that weather played a role in their times at SBU!!!
On Saturday the team spent two hours helping unload some 20 tons of food items for the Warming House where we serve weekly. I will post some video of this later.
The best Christmas gift to be received were the team grades with a preliminary team semester GPA over a 3.1.

Happy Holiday's!!!!

Canisius Meet Changed

The Canisius Meet has been changed to Thursday December 18th at 12:00.

Zippy Invite

We just returned from the 2008 installment of the Zippy Invite. This years invite was considerably faster than the past few years!! The Bonnies Men were able to battle from 5th place after the first day to move up to 3rd over 200 points shy of The Univ. at Buffalo after the second day. The third and final day saw a mad scramble for 1st but we remained in 3rd just 27.5 points out of 1st. This was all with no divers and a few of the guys staying home. The two teams ahead of us were UB who scored 241 and Clarion who scored 145 points on the boards. It was the typical December Invite with a lot of good, some OK and a little not so good. We went into the meet with no magic suits and a little rest to see where we could stack-up against those that were rested and suited up. Standout swims of the meet were Kevin Murphy(4:40.22) and Mike Dansa's (4:44.01)500 free's, Yi Liu's 200 fly (1:53.03), Chris Baker's 200 free (1:43.78) and Peter Koenig's 200 back (1:56.84, lifetime best). Here is the link to the result: http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/akroninvite.html . Now the team is in the most important time of the semester, which is finals week, and the true test as to how we are doing will be revieled. We will be staying on campus until December 22nd when the team will be released for Christmas break and they will return on January 3rd for an evening practice.

Mid-Major Ranking

The Men's Swimming and Diving Team is currently ranked #16 in the CSCAA Mid-Major ranking. Here is a link to the site: http://collegeswimming.com/news/2008/nov/25/navy-miami-top-mid-major-poll/

We depart Thursday for the Akron Invite at the University of Akron. Teams in attendance will be Akron, Bloomsburg, Univ. @ Buffalo, Clarion, Cleveland State, Duquesne, Illinois State, Indiana Univ. of PA, Niagara, Ohio U, Shippensburg, Xavier .

Quirk's Quotes

Senior swimmer, Dan Quirk, sits down and gives a look into this years training, the win against Cleveland State, looking forward to A-10's and what it has been like being a senior captain.

Alumni Weekend Feb 6-8

We are going to celebrate our swimming alumni weekend this year on the weekend of February 6-8, 2009. We have a home meet against Niagara and the men's basketball team is home against LaSalle. It is the university's Homecoming Weekend as well, so I will try to see if we can get a group rate at one of the local hotels for those traveling in. If I could get an idea of the number of rooms needed this would help greatly. We will also need to secure tickets for the hoops game and I will try to work something out from that end.

Memory Banks

I am looking to the alumni to help me with this question that the team had today. We had a birthday goggle toss attempt to get out of practice today and with the inevitable miss by the birthday boy the question came up asking if anyone had made the toss to release the team from practice. I seem to recall one or maybe two successful tosses but can not remember for sure. I am sure the boys will be interested in your replies.

Akron Invite Schedule

I just received the schedule for the Akron Invite and here are the session start times. The meet runs Friday-Sunday December 5-7.

Friday 11:00 & 7:00

Saturday 9:00 & 6:00

Sunday 9:00 & 4:00

LaSalle Meet Wrap-up

Our trip to Philadelphia for our dual meet with A-10 foe LaSalle ended in 177-123 victory over the previously 3-0 Explorers but required a little more work than anticipated. Our hope going in was to give a few of the guys the opportunity to compete in alternate events but after LaSalle opened the meet winning the first three events including a 1-2-3 in the 1000 free we needed to adjust for the task at hand. The result was a solid but rather lackluster set of times. Yi Liu continued his trend of solid swims with wins in the 200 fly and 200 IM and Kevin Murphy put up a nice swim in the 500 free. David Kundzik was a triple winner in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 fly and Mariusz Michalik won the 200 breast while Freshman Peter Koenig came up with our first individual event win in the meet by stopping the bleeding in the 100 back. This gave us the opportunity to keep it close enough to regroup and get the meet under control to our advantage. Diving was once again a strong point with a 1-3-4 finish in the 3 meter and 1-3-5 outcome on the 1 meter.
We had an even stronger showing in the stands with the majority of the fans attending being SBU affiliated. Men's Swim Alums in attendance were Jason Poinatowski, Joe Murphy, Lucas Fink, Chris Ekimoff, Billy Howard, Brendan Morrissey & Ryan Bronowicz.

http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/lasalleresults11-8-08.html

The 4-1 Bonnies will next head to Akron, Ohio for the University of Akron Zippy Invite, December 5-7.

Off For Some Not So Brotherly Love

We are off to Philadelphia for a meet with LaSalle on Saturday at 12:00pm. This has traditionally been a very competitive meet with LaSalle being fully prepared for our visit. Even though we have been victorious in the last four meetings our two meets @ LaSalle have come down to the last relay. We will be doing a 16 event format and hope that we have plenty of SBU supporters in the stands.

Ilya Breaststroke

Ilya Nenshev's breaststroke video shows his need to emphasize his walls with longer breakouts. This is his 200 style stroke that requires a greater press at the extension portion of the cycle. The hips need to breach the surface and create the downhill feeling of the stroke. do not permit the elbows to tuck into your side, that shows that they have come too far back in the pull phase of the stroke. In order to get that reach, the head needs to drop into the down position to increase the DPS. he has dropped from 2:16 down to a 2:12 to this point of the season and looks like he can go under 2:10 with a little improvement.

Akron Invite Hotel Info

For the Akron Zippy Invite we will be staying at the Akron City Center Hotel from Thursday December 4-7. The hotel is right downtown and only minutes from the pool. Here is the link to the hotel: http://www.akroncitycentrehotel.com/ . The specific times for trials and finals has not come out yet but we are anticipating having it in the next week and I will post it on this blog.

Taking Down The Vikings

The men's team took the medicine that Cleveland State administered to them last year in Cleveland and gave them their own dose today at the Reilly Center Pool with a solid 141-100 victory over CSU. In last years meet the Bonnies were denied a single event victory but today, seven event titles and a total team effort were the factors in securing the victory. CSU, who was coming into the meet with a 2-0 record and a returning NCAA qualifier were stunned by a young SBU team that just kept throwing punches. The swimmer of the meet for the Bonnies was undoubtedly Yi Liu, a freshman from Toronto Canada who chopped down Jakub Dobies, CSU's NCAA Qualifier, in the 200 IM then followed it up after the diving break with a victory over CSU's stud distance swimmer Mark deSwardt in the 200 fly. Speaking of diving, SBU's divers, Ryan Pietrzak, John Larson and Trevor Herzog, threw the edge to the Bonnies by dominating CSU's only entry on the boards by handing him an SBU sweep of 1-2-3 on both boards. The 200 strokes were very solid all the way around today and there are a lot of happy swimmers but there are still plenty of areas for improvement but todays results should give them all solid reason to press even harder in practice. There were multiple personal bests once again achieved today with the most notables being Yi Liu's 200 IM and 200 fly, Jake Greene, Peter Koenig and Rob Erickson's 200 backs, David Kundzik's 50 free, Chris Happel's 200 fly and Pat Henahan's 100 free.
Here is the link to the results from the meet: http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/csuresults.html

In attendance today were a few special guests, alum and 200 backstroke varsity record holder Iain Williams who was in the area for the Bills game tomorrow as well as Zac Murphy, our adopted brother from the Friends of Jaclyn foundation (see link) http://www.friendsofjaclyn.org/ . Recent 2008 grads Roman (The Stroke Dr.) Margulis and CJ Maurer were also around for the meet. Next up is a trip to Philadelphia for a dual meet against A-10 rival LaSalle next Saturday at 12:00.

It's beginning to look a lot like ????

Wednesday October 29th and our first measurable snowfall of the season was there to greet the boys on their way to the pool this morning. Here is a little video of the current weather here in lovely Western New York. Our Texan, Francisco Nieves is out making snow angels. Enjoy the video.

Pitt Follow-up

We traveled down for a dual meet with Pitt on Friday afternoon visiting Pittsburgh's newly renovated Trees Pool and had another solid performance on the road winning 5 events and more importantly posting a bunch of season and lifetime bests for many of the team. Some of the highlights for me were our very solid 200 Medley Relay time of 1:35.93 (Koenig, Michalik, Kundzik, Henahan). Kevin Murphy in the 1000 collected the victory and posted a lifetime best in the event with a 9:47.27, Chris Baker continues to show his ability to improve in the 200 dropping some more time for a strong 1:45.20, while Jared Robinson, Mike Dansa and Clayton Coleman all posted non-championsip lifetime bests in the 200. The swimmer of the meet for the Bonnies had to be Mariusz Michalik who won two events (200 breast 2:07.10 and 400 IM 4:09.45), Oosh has been putting in great effort so far this year and really looks to be a force to go deep into the 3:50's in the 4 IM! Sophomore David Kundzik collected a first in the 100 fly with a time of 51.39. Our final victory of the day came in the 200 Free Relay with Henahan, Kundzik, Murphy and Baker touching first with a decent time of 1:26.15. The top story for me continues to be the improvement from meet to meet in our times and the vast number of personal bests that have been attained with the work that we have been doing. There are a few area's that I feel we have underachieved in to this point and some additional focus will be placed there to get them to where they need to be!

Here is the link to the results: http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/results_for_st_bonaventure_at_pitt_10-24-08.html

Next up is Cleveland State on Saturday at 1:00 in the Reilly Center Pool.

Dry Land

Here is recent video of a dry land on Thursday morning that we did. Some medball stuff, plyo box agility training, and some other exercises. This is all after an hour in the weight room with our strength and conditioning coach from 5:45 -7:00 and the dryland portion runs from 7:00-7:45am.

Alumni Sets

Alright Bona swimmers of old, here is your chance to crank up those memory banks and regurgitate that favorite, or not so favorite, set of yours. I often hear stories of the different fabled sets that one coach or another made you do and now is your chance to offer it up. Why, you say? So I can use it on our current victims. I am always looking for new twists and excuses to justify ridiculous sets that I create. Forward them on and I am sure this will get some interesting dialogue going.

Here is a recent one to get the juices flowing:

10 x 500

odds whole decending at 6:00
#2 1 x 100 @ 1:10/4 x 100 @ 1:15
#4 2 x 100 @ 1:08/3 x 100 @ 1:20
#6 3 x 100 @ 1:06/2 x 100 @ 1:25
#8 4 x 100 @ 1:05/1 x 100 @ 2:00
#10 5 x 100 @ 1:15 Best average

Pitt Meet

This Friday we will be traveling to Pittsburgh for a dual meet with PITT. Diving will complete one board at 3:00 then swimming will begin at 4:00. The format is a 16 Event format and here is the order of events.

200 Med Relay
1000 Free
200 Free
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 free
Diving Break
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
500 Free
100 Fly
Diving Break
400 IM
200 Free Relay

Each swimmer is permitted 4 events with no more than 3 of them individual. We will be leaving campus at 11:00am.

Shippensburg Meet

Sunday's dual meet against Shippensburg provided us the opportunity to see some alternate event swims for the team. There were a few specific events that had entries for a reason but many entries were to see what type of versatility we have in the group. The highlight of the meet was Chris Baker's 200 free performance of 1:45.61 which is very solid for this point of the season. Mike Dansa continues to impress with a lifetime best 10:07.79 in the 1000. Freshmen captured victories in the 1000 Mike Dansa, 200 IM Peter Koenig, 100 free Clayton Coleman and 100 back Jake Greene. Seniors Chris Happel and Pat Henahan posted solid times in the 100 fly going 1-2 with 52.66 & 52.67 respectively. Also sophomore David Kundzik criused to a victory in the 500 free with a time of 4:51.79 and Kevin Murphy showed he is still a force in the breaststroke winning the 100 with a time of 1:00.40. Having two Medley relays under 1:39 was a nice show of some depth at this point but there is plenty of work to do and holes to fill.

Here is the link to the results: http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/shippensburg10-19.html

Next up we travel back down to Pittsburgh Friday for a dual meet with Pitt!!! Diving begins at 3:00 and swimming begins at 4:00.

Duquesne Meet

A solid team effort and some timely touch-outs resulted in a nice 116-89 win over a solid Duquesne team on Saturday. Despite no diving and losing the opening 400 Medley Relay the men rebounded with a solid all around effort. The 200 strokes were strong with the back halves looking as solid as I had hoped to see them. Our sprinting is not up to speed yet but that is the plan at this point. Freshmen played a big role in this with many having very solid kick-offs to the competitive season, in particular Mike Dansa (200 free, 500 free, 200 breast), Yi Liu (200 IM, 200 fly) and Jake Greene (200 free, 200 back). Kevin Murphy came up huge with very solid performances in winning two individual events (1000 & 500 free) as well as Mariusz Michalik (200 IM & 200 breast).

Here is a link to the results: http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/swim-sbu.html

Today we have Shippensburg at 12:00 and will be doing a short format of 200 relays and 100's in the strokes. Results will follow.

Seeking Gala Donations

The Annual Tip-off Gala is taking place November 8th and this year is honoring Men's Basketball's 1960-61 NCAA Tournament Team. We are in need of auction items for this event. Proceeds from the funds gained are directly deposited into the Men's Swimming Booster account. If you have any questions or interest in donating something please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience.

WNY Invite

The first racing of the young season was had last Saturday in Buffalo at the Western New York Invite. With UB, Binghamton, Canisius, Niagara and SBU in attendance this unscored event served as a reason to do some racing. Sluggish results from a tough week were the by-product. Highlights would be limited but expected with David Kundzik (100 free 47.37) and Mariusz Michalik (200 breast 2:12.44).

Here is the link to the entire meet results: http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/w-swim/stats/2008-2009/wnyresults.html

Western New York Invite

The Western New York Invite will serve as our first opportunity to fire up the engines to see what we have to work with this season. This unscored event that will be hosted by the Univ. at Buffalo will take place on October 11th. Sessions are at 10:00am and 4:00pm with a timed finals format.

Session 1 (10:00am)

200 Medley Relay

500 Free

200IM

50 Free

200 Fly

100 Breast

200 Back

1 Meter Dive

Session 2 (4:00pm)

100 Free

1000 Free

100 Back

100 Fly

200 Breast

200 Free

400 IM

200 Free Relay

3 Meter Dive

Each individual will be swimming 4 Individual Events so start looking at your potential events.

Humphrey Hill Challenge 08

The Humphrey Hill Run was waged this morning in a brisk 38 degrees. The fog was thick as Kevin Murphy emerged victorious with the last 1/4 mile being done in bright sunshine above the cloud layer. The Team Challenge results were tabulated and Liquid Grunt came out victorious with an average time of 15:37.64 to The Frederson's 16:35.6.

Here are the results:

Kevin Murphy 12:26
Dan Quirk 12:43
Jake Greene 13:40
Ilya Nenashev 14:02
David Kundzik 14:21
Brady Bradshaw 14:23
Hunter Baskerville 15:14
Yi Liu 15:19
Mariusz Michalik 15:34
Chris Baker 15:37
Jared Robinson 15:40
Mike Dansa 16:00
Chris Happel 16:19
Peter Koenig 16:32
Clayton Coleman 17:00
Ryan Quinn 17:10
Dan Eisemann 17:17
Francisco Nieves 17:54
Phil Smith 21:19
Rob Erickson 22:19

Humphrey Hill Run

The Annual Humphrey Hill ascent will take place this Saturday morning, continuing a long tradition of this event. Begun many years ago due to the fact that we had a bunch of freshmen that refused to race each other in practice, this has turned into a staple each year. It is a 1 1/2 mile hill about 5 miles outside of town. Last years Champ, Dan Quirk finished in a time of 12:40, just off of his personal best of 12:16.
Results and video will follow the completion.

Jake & Peter Backstroke

Jake, you will be able to see the short walls and lack of flexibility in your upperbody on your backstroke. The bobbing needs to be minimized as well, but the easy speed that is available off of the walls needs to be worked on BIG TIME!! Cycle rate is good. Peter, great walls with nice speed via the kick!! I would like to see more emphasis on the kick while on the surface and those 50's could have been turned up a notch in cycle rate!!!

Team Challenge Series

In the yearly battle of Team Challenges after today's "Static Hang Challenge", Liquid Grunt has taken a 3-2 lead in the series. Today's challenge which is considered a mental toughness challenge Liquid Grunt posted an average time of 1:25.89 with the Frederson's averaging 58.1 seconds per man. Marius Michalik posted the top time with a 2:19.

Top 5 Performers
1. Marius Michalik 2:19.0
2. David Kundzik 1:39.7
3. Jared Robinson 1:36.7
4. Mike Dansa 1:35.9
5. Brady Bradshaw 1:33.8

Other Challenge Results

45 lb. Plate Walk's
Fredersons Ave. 1:20.0/Liquid Grunt 1:20.5

1000 Kick for Time
Liquid Grunt Ave 15:59/Fredersons 16:29

Death Ball
Liquid Grunt 4-0

Cuba Lake Challenge
Frederson's

Cuba Lake Challenge Results

On a beautiful Saturday morning 22 competitors started their venture around the serene perimeter of Cuba Lake to begin the third annual Cuba Lake Challenge. The 4.7 mile run followed by a roughly 900 yards swim took less that 49 minutes to complete. A group of some 60 spectators watched intently from Cottage 333 with their binoculars while getting periodic updates via the walkie talkies which kept them in tune with the contest. In the end sophomore Kevin Murphy emerged from the lake in a Cuba Lake Challenge record time of 48.42 some 4 1/2 minutes faster than his freshman year effort.

Results:

1. Kevin Murphy 48.42
2. Dan Quirk 49.45
3. Jake Greene 52.38
4. Jared Robinson 53.37
5. David Kundzik 53.39
6. Santiago Castaneda 53.57
7. Ilya Nenashev 54.14
8. Brady Bradshaw 55.25
9. Chris Baker 55.52
10. Mariusz Michalik 56.17
11. Yi Liu 56.28
12. Mike Dansa 57.21
13. Clayton Coleman 57.52
14. Peter Koenig 58.05
15. Chris Happel 58.06
16. Francisco Nieves 59.00
17. Hunter Baskerville 1:00.33
18. Ivan Rodriguez 1:01.04
19. Pat Henahan 1:03.00
20. Rob Erickson 1:05.44

A huge thank you goes out to the Prizels for hosting this annual event that I anticipate growing into having an alumni division next year, so we can give you a reason to bust out that old speedo once again!!!

Morning Workout

Here are some of the activities from practice this morning.

Warming House

It's Wednesday and time for our weekly trip to volunteer at the Warming House in Olean. We serve every Wednesday at a SBU run soup kitchen that has been in place for over 30 years. Members of the team prepare, serve and clean up for some of Olean's needy. Ilya Nenashev (Satka, Russia), David Kundzik (Radom, Poland), Pat Butler (Greeneville, RI)and Francisco Nieves (Fort Worth, TX) serve up the food.