Alumni Weekend 2010!!!

April 30th-May 2nd, be there!!!

Akron Invite Day 1

Some sluggish swimming was unfortunately what the Bonnies took from todays swimming. There were some solid swim ups tonight but not enough to show that we have the toughness I was hoping to see. Hoping that tomorrow we will show ready to have some fun and do some racing!

Akron Invite Canned Food Drive

We will be heading out to the University of Akron for the Zippy Invite that will take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Ocasek Natatorium. We are being asked to relay to those attending that their Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will be conducting a food drive to benefit their local Battered Women's Shelter for Summit and Medina Counties. There will be boxes placed at both entrances to the Natatorium for those that wish to assist this most worthwhile cause.

Humphrey Hill, 2009!!!

Here is the video from our Humphrey Hill Challenge. Have a great Thanksgiving!!!

Proud "old fart" Moment

Today was like many other Wednesday's that we serve at the Warming House in the afternoon preparing, serving, cleaning up and interacting with the guests who are there for various reasons. I know that the team, many times, views it as a less than desirable obligation but I have come to realize that this will impact them later in life when perspectives change. The big difference today occurred while I was driving two of the guests home tonight after dinner.

We are approaching a date that was a tragic one in town when a few homes burned down one evening and two young children perished in the fire. The guests in my car were residents of one of those homes. During our drive home she shared how important the Warming House is to her and her family as it serves as a very strong support structure and how much she appreciates the time spent by all of the volunteers that help out there. She was adamant about the valuable purpose that this serves the community and how important it was for her during that most difficult time as the, unfortunate, anniversary approaches.

We have served at the House of Warmth for three years now and I appreciate the contributions that the team has made for the local community. Many talk about what they would like to do to help out and make a difference, the members of the men's swim team are making a difference and it is appreciated.

Cleveland State Summary

What else can I say!! We walked into a buzz saw and we knew it!!! The difference is that we actually swam well in a pool that can give us a lot of problems with its depth. I was extremely pleased with our performances at CSU in a quad meet with CSU/Niagara and Valpo. Our Medley Relay finished third with a solid 3:28.97 which is easily our best this season. CSU split there relays to 1-2 us and succeeded with a 55.6 breast split on one of them!! In the 1000 Ethan Rowan continued his trend of best times each time he hits the water with a 6 second improvement to finish in 9:37.31 and Elias Homerin finally showed what he is capable of with a 9:53.25. Mike Dansa and Kevin Murphy had impressive 200 frees with our best of the season so far and the same story can be said of the 50 free with Dawid Kundzik and Jared Robinson throwing up 21.27 & 21.48. We knew we were not our best in the 2 IM with Yi Liu staying home due to illness but Mariusz continued to perform well there and Chris Baker got his first crack at the 2IM of the season and went 1:58.98 which is solid for him at this point of the season. Dawid won the 100 free with a 46.96 while Nate Destree and Francisco Nieves posted times that showed they are improving and on track with season best 49.06 and 49.07. David Erickson had the best individual swim of the day with an impressive 1:56.64 in the 200 back and took top spot among our group of 2 backers. The 500 free was OK with Ethan going 4:41.87 but poorly split this race and easily could have busted the 4:39 barrier. Mariusz continued his winning ways in the 200 breast beating the very solid CSU swimmers with a best in-season time of 2:06.32. Our 400 Free Relay's were nothing special @ 3:12.23/3:20.43 (sorry guys).

Swimmer of the Meet was determined to be Mariusz due to his 57.7 split in the Medley Relay and his 200 Breast performance.

Here is a link to the results: http://www.gobonnies.com/sports/m-swim/2009-10/files/ClevelandState.htm

Akron "Zippy" Invite

Next up for the Bonnies Men's Swim Team is the Univ. of Akron "Zippy" Invite. This meet which runs three days Dec 4-6 is one of our favorites of the year. The no pressure mentality and first opportunity to swim with a "little" rest makes for a great week. We will once again be staying at the Akron City Center Hotel and rooms are plentiful there. The contact number there is (330) 384-1500. Times of sessions are:
Friday and Saturday 9:00am and 6:00pm and Sunday 9:00am and 4:00pm.
To this point we have been progressing nicely with a reasonably healthy team in the water now. Kevin Murphy who had been hampered by a groin injury seems to be progressing well and swam his first meet of the year at Cleveland State. Most of the major illness slowdowns seem to be in the past for now.
Hope to see some SBU swimming family and area alums in Akron!!

Nutritional Info

Nutrient Timing
Knowing when to eat is just as important as what to eat.
When your performance goal is gain lean muscle mass, you need to keep several factors in mind. First total caloric needs should be determined based on your BMR (Basil Metabolic Rate or your body’s ability to burn calories at rest). Second, if you are not taking in enough calories to meet the demands of your daily training, then your body is forced to sacrifice lean muscle tissue for energy. Third, the quality of food is just as important as the quantity of food. Last, when you eat is just as important as what you eat. Follow the 4 simple rules listed below and you will be well on your way to reaching your performance goals.
RULE #1: Breakfast was given its name because you are “breaking the fast” from the last 8 or so hours you have been sleeping. This is the reason it’s often said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You body tries to do all it can to conserve your hard-earned lean body mass (the first to go) when you’re essentially in starvation mode, which is what can happen during sleep. Subsequently, eating that first meal is crucial in terms of attaining your health and performance goals.
RULE#2: As a Reminder, it isn’t wise to leave too long of a gap between feedings either. Otherwise, you’ll essentially send your body into a muscle eating “catabolic state”. Now of course, this doesn’t mean you should force feed your body until you reach gluttony with the intention of preserving lean body mass. Instead, smaller more frequent meals (eat once every 3-4 hours) provide more nutrients to the body more often by enhancing the digestion and absorption of nutrients. Meal planning and frequency, like breakfast, is crucial.
RULE#3: In terms of post-workout recovery, there is approximately a 30-45 minute “window of opportunity” immediately following a workout or practice in which your body will store more energy and nutrients than it can under normal circumstances. During this brief window, your muscles can be “super-loaded” up to three times more than its normal storage capacity with essential nutrients. Refueling the body with the proper amount of nutrients after exercise allows for the greater degree of speed, strength and power development, resulting in a greater training effect and enhanced performance. If you fail to do so, you limit your ability to recover fully leading into your next training, which can spell disaster. So as the saying goes, “If you snooze, you lose!” Eat on time!
RULE#4: Don’t forget to drink your water. Be sure to drink at least 16-32 oz. of water immediately after exercise. Water flushes out metabolic waste products from exercise and is essential in maintaining the body’s cooling system. Why you ask? Exercise increases the body’s core temperature.
Your body tries to cool itself by moving extra heat to the skin via the blood. The higher your core temperature rises, the more blood is used for cooling, and less is available for the working muscles. So, the cooler you stay during exercise, short of being cold, the better your muscle function. A good measure to know if you’re hydrated or not is to take a peek when you use the restroom. If your urine color is clear to pale yellow you’re hydrated. If it’s dark yellow and/or has a strong odor, chances are you need to get some water in the body, quickly!!

Morning Dryland

Here is some video from our dryland practice this morning. We lift and dryland on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 5:45-7:45 and this is a small sample of some of the stuff we do after our lifting session with our strength and conditioning coach, Darryn Fiske. We are still recovering from sickness as we have had and still ahve a number of guys out due to various sickness.

Wed. Morn Sprint

We had a cycle rate practice with the sprinters this morning working on cycle rate maintenance. Many need to learn to swim quieter by increasing the kick but this type of set showed the need for us to do a lot more of this type of work. Hope you enjoy the vid's.

Stroke of the Day Critique

Here we have Yi Liu, a sophomore from Toronto, swimming backstroke in preparation for a run at the final 8 of the 400 IM at championships later this season. He has a serious problem over-reaching on the top of his stroke thus killing his cycle rate. He can not feel the obvious imperfection, thus motivating this taping.

Next we have Jared Robinson (J-rob), a junior from Georgia, swimming one of his five different freestyles. We have had chronic problems with J-rob understanding the principles of streamlining and distance per stroke. Here he is showing pretty good restaint in doing much better in what we are looking for. He has a real problem in beating the wake out of the 25 wall and getting washed out.

Rookie of the Week!!!

http://www.gobonnies.com/sports/m-swim/spec-rel/102609aaa.html

Ethan Rowan has been named the A-10 Rookie of the Week. Check out the link to the full article on our www.gobonnies.com website.

Grand-dad!!!

Father Time has advanced his hands once more to put our beloved mentor Kevin McNamee into the ranks of G-pa (Grandfather). Kevin's daughter Meghan Sakshaug, also of Virginia, brought Cambria Leigh Sakshaug into the world on October 15th. All are doing well!!! Congrat's, G-Pa!!!

Pitt Meet

Had a good one today at the Reilly Center Pool with the Pitt Panthers coming in for a Saturday afternoon tilt. We came out of the gates quickly with wins in the 200 Medley Relay, 1:35.28 (Koenig, Michalik, Kundzik, Robinson) just off the their season best and Ethan Rowan continuing to improve in the 1000 free with a time of 9:44.24. Pitt won the next two events, the 200 free and 100 back despite some quality swims out of Chris Baker in the 200 free 1:45.57 and Peter Koenig 53.65 and Jake Greene 54.93 in the backstroke with season best times. The Bonnies jump back with wins in the 100 breast with Mariusz Michalik (59.13) and a strong 3rd and 4th place finish out of Mike Dansa and Ilya Nenashev. Pitt took a 1-2 in the 200 fly but we welcomed back sophomore Yi Liu who has been hampered by some illness over the past two weeks, then Dawid Kundzik took the 50 free with a 21.53. After the first break Jared Robinson took second in the 100 free(48.05). In the 200 back we knew we were going to take a hit but Jake Greene (1:58.31) and David Erickson(1:58.40/Lifetime Best) and Peter Koenig minimized the damage by finishing 3-4-5.The 200 breast saw SBU 1-2 Pitt with Michalik and Dansa posting season best times of 2:09.00 and 2:11.40 respectively. Ethan Rowas owned the 500 free and cruised to an easy victory and season best time of 4:44.80 while Elias Homerin fought back from a slow start to just get touched out for 2nd going 4:52.42. The 200 IM saw the Bonnies finish 1-2 once again with Mariusz finishing off a very solid meet of 3 individual wins and 1 relay victory going 1:57.17 and Yi Liu finishing second with a come from behind 1:58.31. The 400 Free Relay finished second going 3:08.78 to finish the meet.
It was a very fun and exciting meet with the Panthers and was a great testament as we did not compromise our training at all for the meet. We are very excited about where we are at this point of the season but our goal remains to be at the end of the year. The annual pre-season predictions came out and once again we were picked to be second by the A-10 Coaches, which is where we would expect to be but we realize that we could go up or down as there are many variables that go into a season.

Here is a link to our full results from the Pitt meet:http://www.gobonnies.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2009-2010/pittresults.html .

Penn State Meet

Today we had the Nittany Lion's of Penn State at the Reilly Center Pool for a 12:00 diving meet and a 4:00 swim meet. Despite some technical difficulties with the timing system we performed rather well with the work that has been done. After a 5200 yard morning workout that was a little more aggressive then the team figured they would get we had some sharp performances. Here is a link to the results:http://www.gobonnies.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2009-2010/pennstate.html . The final score ended up 140-97 in Penn States favor but we ended up with 5 event wins and some other very close ones. The highlights were the 200 Medley Relay of Koenig, Michalik, Kundzik and Robinson winning with a very solid time of 1:35.08. Ethan Rowan was my swimmer of the meet with two very solid swims in the 1000 (9:47.89, 3rd) and the 500 free (4:46.65, 2nd). Dawid Kundzik collected a victory in the 50 free with a time of 21.60. Mariusz won the 200 breast in an estimated time of 2:10 as we had some problems with the timing system and totally lost the times. Diving collected victories on both boards with Freshman Mike Murphy winning both boards in impressive fashion with scores of 303.53 on the 3 meter and 271.05 on the 1 meter.

Thursday's Workout Showdown

This afternoon's practice which was broken into three training groups for the first time had the most challenging set in the distance lane with Christian Welsh, Ethan Rowan and Elias Homerin doing battle in a set of:

1000 @ 12:30
5 x 200 IM descending at 3:00
1000 @ 12:30
10 x 100 odd EZ/evens Kick/Swim 50's @ 1:45
1000 For Time

The 1000's were descending as well and the last one came down to Ethan and Elias dueling side by side the whole way. At the 500 mark both were well under 5:00's at 4:54's and Elias had about a second lead at 650 yards. Ethan crawled back into the swim and pulled ahead but had lost track and briefly stopped at 850 thinking it was over. After jumping back into the final 150 both ended up finishing with very solid times of 10:00 for Elias and 10:02 for Ethan. This is a nice indicator that the distance events will be a solid area this season!!!

WNY Invite

It was a spirited practice this morning that revolved around the determination of the relays for this weekend's meet. We had a series of challenge swims to determine the relay pecking orders for the meet. Nathan Destree and Francisco Nieves had the best tilt going three times in the 50 free fighting for the final spot for the A 200 free relay. Francisco ended up sending the gamey freshman to the B squad despite three great races by both sprinters. All of their times were in the 22 mid range which was rather surprising to me at this stage. Saturday we will be heading to Buffalo for the Western New York Invite. Binghamton, Canisius, Niagara, SBU and host UB will have a split session timed finals meet starting at 10:00am. The session 's will be as follows:

Session 1 @ 10:00am
200 Med Relay
500 Free
200 IM
50 Free
200 Fly
100 Breast
200 Back
200 Free

Lunch at the Erickson's

Session 2 @ 3:00
100 Free
1000 Free
100 Back
1oo Fly
200 Breast
400 IM
200 Fr Relay

Each swimmer will be competing in 4 individuals events and the meet in un-scored.

Monday Morning

We had our first split practice of the season this morning with 2 groups (Distance/Stroke). The distance group had a 6000 smoker with the main set being a set of:

The Monday morning group was comprised of:
(Murphy, Dansa, Welsh, Rowan, Homerin, Robinson, Dave Erickson, Eisemann, Destree)

10 x 300
3 descend at 3:45
3 doing a 100 @ 1:05 with a 200 @ 2:30
3 doing a 200 @ 2:15/2:10/2:05 with a 100 @ 1:30
1 x 300 FT (For Time)

The group that we had in lanes 5 and 6 were as tough as I have seen in many moons.

Cuba Lake Challenge

The Cuba Lake Challenge was waged this past weekend on a cloudy and chilly Saturday morning. The team and six alumni participants departed Cottage #333 of Cuba Lake for the run around the lake and swim across. In the end Kevin Murphy became the first two time winner of the event finishing with a time of :49.04 just 22 seconds off of his record time and 2 minutes ahead of the next contestant. Dan Quirk collected the hardware for finishing first among the alumni participants and third overall. Dan's time of :51.43 was just two minutes off of his personal best in the event.

Here is a link to a video of some of the action for your entertainment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0u9zxAX2Y8

Results:

(A)=Alumni

Kevin Murphy 49.04

Jake Greene 51.24

(A)Dan Quirk 51.43

Ilya Nenashev 51.52

Dawid Kundzik 52.41

Mike Dansa 52.52

Yi Liu 53.14

Jared Robinson 54.00

Dave Erickson 54.03

Mariusz Michalik 54.23

Nate Destree 54.35

(A) Tito Nery 55.01

(A) Billy Howard 55.17

Hunter Baskerville 56.13

Chris Baker 56.51

(A) Chris Ekimoff 57.01

Santi Castaneda 57.17

Peter Koenig 58.00

Dan Eisemann 59.38

(A) Scott Jordan 1:00.36

Rob Erickson 1:02.05

Elias Homerin 1:02.07

Pat Butler 1:06.53 rode bike 12 miles

Kevin Owens 1:08.05

Ethan Rowan 1:10.18

(A) CJ Maurer 1:15.47

Trevor Herzog 1:22.16

A special thank you goes out to Bob and Tiffany Prizel for hosting us once again. It is our hope to have more alums participate in the future.

Cuba Lake Challenge

The 4th installment of the Cuba Lake Challenge will be waged Saturday September 26th as part of Parents's Weekend. We will be leaving the Reilly Center to head out to the lake at 8:45am. This year we are having an Alumni Division. The race will begin from Cottage #333 (North Shore Rd., Cuba, NY) on Cuba Lake at 10:00am. Pictured is the hardware to be handed out to the top team participant and top alumni participant. The team has been anticipating the naming of the menu as Mr. Prizel is quite the cook and I was just informed that pulled pork and meatballs with a strawberry and spinach salad will be the fare this Saturday. The weather is looking to be sunny and 70 degrees and the weather has been cool so the screams when they hit the water should be loud enough to be heard across the lake. Some parents have been asking what to bring and the suggestions would be desserts and side dishes to pass. Hope to see many out here for this event!!

Brennan Changes Positions

Lance Brennan (Class of '94) has changed positions from Director of Compliance here at SBU to Director of Marketing and Promotions. Lance coached the women's swim program from 1999-2009 and after the 2008-2009 season made the transition over to the administrative side of the athletic department.

Morning Team Challenge

This morning we selected the teams for our series of Team Challenges that we do over the course of the year and competed in the traditional Plate Walk Challenge. It was the perfect example of never being out of it!!! The look in the eyes of the frosh, trying to evaluate how much it was going to hurt is always a favorite of mine. In the end Team 2 captained by Pat Butler was victorious in the annual kick-off to the Challenge Series!

Team 1: Michalik, Eisemann, Baker, Castaneda, Koenig, Kundzik, Liu, Nenashev, Owens, Robinson, Dave Erickson, Homerin

Team 2: Butler, Baskerville, Dansa, Rob Erickson, Greene, Murphy, Nieves, Achilles, Destree, Rowan, Welsh

Getting Back At It!!!

We began workouts this morning with our first lift and dryland of the season. Today is the second day of classes and we trying to get off on the right foot. We did have a few participants meeting at the various garbage cans around the Reilly Center this morning as part of the opening session festivities.

Cuba Lake Challenge 2009

This years annual Cuba Lake Challenge will be waged on September 26th out at Cottage #333 of Cuba Lake. The 4.7 mile run and roughly 900 yard swim has become a team tradition. This will be the fourth installment of the challenge and Kevin Murphy will try to defend his 2008 title. We have had some interest expressed by alums to participate and so we are extending the offer to them and are looking to develop an alumni division. Bobby and Tiffany Prizel will once again open their home to the program and graciously host a barbeque following the completion of the challenge. It is during Parent's Weekend so we are looking at having a supportive crowd for the event. Pictured are Kevin Murphy (2008 Champ), and Dan Quirk (2007 Champ)

SBU Swim Alums

Here is a link to an article about the Amherst Swim Club which was one of the regions most powerful clubs in the 70's and 80's. Many of the their swimmers have been major impact athletes here at St. Bonaventure. In attendance from SBU were Matt Fix, Dan Hook, Eric McClaren, Cole Racho, Jay Triepel and Mike Wood.

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/731125.html

Congrat's to David Kundzik

David recently competed at the Polish Senior Swimming Championships (LCM) back home and had some nice finishes. David placed 8th in the 50 free and butterfly and was 18th in the 100 fly.

50 fly 8th 24.99
50 free 8th 23.48
100 fly 18th 56.92

Team GPA

The Men's Swimming and Diving Team completed the Spring semester with a team semester GPA of a 3.170 which helps to raise the Cumulative GPA to an 3.093. This will enable the team to partake in a Winter Training Camp this January much to the teams enjoyment. We had 15 people who had a semester GPA of a 3.0 or higher and 14 that have a cumulative GPA of a 3.0 or higher. This ranking rates second among men's teams here at SBU behind Cross Country with a semester/cumulative GPA of a 3.35/3.222.

Class of 2009!!!

We bid farewell to the Class of 2009 as they depart Bonaventure Country Club for the next chapter of their lives. The ceremony this past Sunday featured keynote speaker and Buffalo native Wolf Blitzer.

Class of 2009:

Chris Happel

Ryan Pietrzak

John Larson

Phil Smith

Dan Quirk

Pat Henahan

Two Team Members Garner Department Awards!!

Congrat's goes out to Dan Quirk (second from left) and Phil Smith (middle). both were recognized yesterday at the athletic departments Senior Awards Banquet, that was held at the Clubhouse. Dan received the Merit Award for his unequaled representation of the university, swim program and his family during his time spent here at SBU. Phil received the Service Award for his 4 year comittment to not only the swim program but the atheltic department with the Sports Information Department. It is nice to see two people who normally do not get the recognition deserved be honored in this way. These are the people who are the true representatives of the team because of the immense contribitions that they make without the fanfare. Congrat's to both as they prepare for graduation this Sunday. We will be having a reception following the ceremony in the pool area for our seniors before they had off to the next chapter of their lives.

Weekend Happenings

We have a couple of recruits in this weekend for Official Visits. The weather is awesome and some golf is being played. Tomorrow the Women's Hoops team plays South Florida in the quarter finals of the Women's NIT here at the Reilly Center at 1:00! We had our first Spring Biathalon yesterday which consists of just over a 4 mile run followed by a 1000 yard swim and Jake Greene finished first with a respectable time of 39:27. We will be doing this a few times over the next month so we shall see how they improve.
Have a great weekend.

Off to Juniors

I am in the process of heading down to Orlando for the Junior National Meet to see some of our recruits swim.

PA States

I just returned from the Pennsylvania High School State Championships doing some recruiting at one of the fastest high school meets in the nation. There were some very impressive swimming going on at Bucknell and now it is time to get the boys to put the pen to the paper. We will be beginning Spring workouts on Monday morning and starting the process of preparing for what is to come next February!!!

Recruits

Well to this point we have three recruits who have verbally committed to St. Bonaventure. I am not permitted to identify them per NCAA regulations but we have offers out to three other individuals right now. We are looking for a class of 5-7 individuals and with the verbals thus far we are already stronger than last season. The National Letter of Intent signing period begins April 8th so we are hopeful to have our class solidified soon after that date.

A Sad Day!!

While driving into campus this morning I was looking forward to seeing the team following their Spring Break as I entered campus I noticed the university flag at half staff and wondered who from the SBU family had passed. It later came to my attention that it was one of our own, Dr. Daniel Brislane. "Doc", as the men's team knew him was an avid supporter of the team and functioned as our faculty rep, team statistician, photo journalist and any other responsibility he could possibly help out with. He was with the team both on campus and on the road and was integral in helping Kevin McNamee with the day-to-day operations. He will be sorely missed!

Here is a link to Doc's obituary:

The calling hours for Dr. Daniel Brislane are today from 5:00-8:00 p.m. at the Casey, Halwig & Hartle Funeral Home (3128 West State Street). A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, March 10 at 10:00 a.m. in St. Mary of the Angels Church.

This information is from Dr. Brislane’s obituary, which you can find at http://www.caseyhalwighartle.com/index.php?Obituaries

Administrative Thank-you!!!

Dear Parents,

As our swimming and diving seasons come to a close, I wanted to personally thank everyone for all you did to make last week’s events so memorable for everyone. Whether you were working the pool deck as a back-up timer or up in the stands cheering on our Bonnies, your presence and support is invaluable to our program and the success of the meet. The enthusiasm and creativeness of your cheers and banners all help make the championships so special to so many individuals. With all the different sport championships I’ve been involved with over the years, I can honestly say that these championships, year in and year out, are my favorite. And a large part of it has to do with the student-athletes and their families.

You should be very proud of your son or daughter for their accomplishments, whether it was winning a medal or scoring a personal best. And though we all wished for two championship trophies on Saturday evening, there is pride in consistently being two of the best programs in the conference. And, for many, there is always next year!

I’ve received some inquiries about the dates for 2010. The Championships are scheduled for February 17th – 20th, 2010 at the Flickinger Center in Buffalo so please mark it on your calendars. We have also submitted a bid for 2011 for the same corresponding weekend (the weekend after President’s Day). We will know if we have support for this bid in the next coming months.

Finally, I want to thank you for entrusting your child to St. Bonaventure and our family. I know that you and your child had a choice to make and that it is not always an easy one, especially when distance from home can make it so difficult for you as parents. But we are very pleased that the choice was St. Bonaventure and that they chose to continue their swimming and diving careers with us.

Thank you for your support and best wishes from our family to yours.

Sincerely,

Barbara Questa
Sr. Associate Director of Athletics

Building on the End Product

The 2009 Atlantic-10 Championships ended Saturday evening with your Bonnies in the two hole for the third straight year in a row. The night had its ups and downs and began with Mike Dansa finishing in 15th in the 1650 free and Kevin Murphy struggling to an 18th place finish for the Bonnies just out of the points. In the 200 backstroke Peter Koenig, Jake Greene and Rob Erickson finished off a solid first A-10's with them finishing 8th, 10th and 14th respectively with Erickson moving up and posting another lifetime best in the event with a 1:53.99. The 100 free was a strong point that could have ended better but set us up for the 400 free relay later that night. David Kundzik was touched out finishing second with a 45.50, Pat Henahan was 5th at 46.01 while Jared Robinson was 7th with a 46.34 and Francisco Nieves, who was the lone freshman in the top 8, was 8th at 46.47. The 200 breast saw freshman Ilya Nenashev incorporate the stroke technique we had been looking for all year into his swim and reaped the benefits with a very well swum 2:06.46 that won the consolation heat, while junior Mariusz Michalik finished off a solid meet with his third A-10 title in the event with a 2:02.79. The 200 fly served as Chris Happel's final event with another lifetime best of 1:55.45 good for 12th place and Hunter Baskerville improved his time and finished 15th with a 1:56.23. The men's 3 meter dive saw Ryan Pietrzak finish his SBU career in 8th place in finals while Jon Larson and Trevor Herzog finished in 10th and 13th. The final event of the meet was the 400 Free Relay and hopes were high that we could end on a high note but anticipated strong competition even though we had 4 in the top 8 of the 100 earlier that night. Chris Baker led off with a blazing 45.78 followed by Jared Robinson, who overcame a tough freshman experience in not scoring a point to finaling in all three of his events this year. Jared posted a 45.43 which put David Kundzik in the water who swam a very strong leg to give us a lead with a 44.79 who handed it off to Pat Henahan who split 44.94 and had to hang tough in the last 25 to hold off a charging Justin Coombs from Fordham for the victory with a very solid time of 3:00.94, just off of the A-10 Record.
Here is the video of the race.

All in all it was a solid showing for the young squad. There was a lot to build off while also showing us where we need to improve. The quest will continue!!! After the meet the senior parents held a banquet at the Pearl Street Grill that was very well attended and gave us the opportunity to recognize our graduating seniors in front of the entire group. We also got the opportunity to wish well to Lance Brennan who is leaving the coaching ranks with the women's team to assume compliance duties in the athletic department. Alumni came out in nice numbers also during the weekend: Dr. Rob Erickson, Ryan Bronowicz, Adrian Blaszczak, Matt Cormier, Chris Ekimoff, CJ Maurer and Mike Postles were all spotted, along with a nice array of alumni parents. Thanks to all that followed the action and sent their well wishes over the course of the week. Now it is on the recruiting trail to try to assemble a group that will take the fight to another level. if there is someone in your area that I should be looking at please do not hesitate to contact me. Our family reaches far and wide and your help is appreciated.

Here is a link to the results: http://www.starswimming.org/results/A-10/

Saturday Morning

We had a very strong effort heading into the last day of competition at A-10's. The 200 backstroke saw huge lifetime bests from all three participants, Peter Koenig 7th 1:52.28, Jake Greene 9th (ugh) 1:52.74 and Rob Erickson 16th 1:55.36. The 100 free the best showing out of the Bonnies in the meet with 4 making it back in the top 8. David Kundzik qualified 1st at 45.52, Pat Henahan sits 3rd with a 45.78 while Jared Robinson continues to have a breakout meet in 7th with a 46.20 and freshman Francisco Nieves is 8th at 46.45. Clayton Colman got out to a slow 5o and was 21st with a 47.44. The 200 breast saw Mariusz Michalik finish 2nd at 2:04.61 in a very relaxed swim and Ilya Nenashev FINALLY swam the stroke we have been working on and qualified 11th with a 2:07.76. The 200 fly was the last event of the session and Chris Happel and Hunter Baskerville made it back in the consolation heat in 13th and 15th. Dan Quirk and Dan Eisemann did their time trial 1650 following the session and Dan Quirks final swim of his SBU career is in the books Dan Eisemann finished in 17:12.58 and Quirk touch at 17:15.69. The entire team stayed to watch one our best ambassadors finish his career in the pool.



Tonight will mark the end for our other seniors Chris Happel & Pat Henahan as well as divers Jon Larson and Ryan Pietrzak and manager for all four years Phil Smith. It will be difficult seeing them go out with the mission incomplete but there is still a lot of pride and fight in this group going into tonight.

Good but...

Friday night finished with our Bonnies still in second place but lost ground to UMass 453.5-365 Xavier is in third with 310 and Duquesne right behind with 302. The 400 IM started off the night with Mariusz Michalik finishing in 4th place with a 4:01.04, Yi Liu was 11th at 4:07.94 and Hunter Baskerville was 15th at 4:11.20. The 100 fly was a very strong event for us with David Kundzik finishing 2nd going 49.47, Pat Henahan 5th at 50.14 and Chris Happel 6th at 50.30. Clayton Coleman was in the consolation heat and finished 15th at 51.71. In the 200 free Mike Dansa continued his solid meet with a 1:40.91 which was good for 6th place while Chris Baker won the consi heat at 1:42.13 along with J-Rob 14th, Franisco Nieves 15th and Clayton Coleman 16th. In the 100 breast Kevin Murphy was our lone representative and almost kept the SBU breaststroke dominance intact but got touched out by Duquesnes Ian Walsh. Kevin's swim of 56.11 was our honored swim of the session. In the 100 back Peter Koenig finished 8th with a 51.86 and Jake Greene ended up 16th. The final event of the session was the 400 Medley Relay and the team of Koenig, Murphy, Kundzik and Henahan finished third with a Varsity Record setting time of 3:21.03.
The reality of the situation is that we need to keep up the intensity to hold position and try to close the gap on UMass, so all are heading to bed for another full day of action on Saturday.

Finals Exam!!

Well we shall see what we are made of come this evening. The morning session was good but there was absolute room for improvement. We will see the character of this squad tonight as they will have to step it up "Big Time". Freshmen made a huge impact this morning with some great swims!!

Highlights:
Mariusz Michalik 4:02.36 2nd going into finals 400 IM
Hunter Baskerville lifetime best 4:09.45 10th to this point
Clayton Coleman tough double and made it back in 100 fly 51.11 and 200 free 1:42.84 (both lifetime bests)
Chris Happel first ever A-10 Championship final in 100 fly 50.65, 8th
Jared Robinson 9th (ugh) in the 200 free with a great swim of 1:42.34
Francisco Nieves 1:43.82 and 16th (a great surprise!!!)
Kevin Murphy tied for 4th in the 100 breast at lifetime best of 57.09
Jake Greene with a huge 100 back, snuck in at 16th and giant lifetime best of 52.85 and sets him up nicely for the 2 back
Peter Koenig's tough double today with 4 IM and 100 back and ripped a 51.31 in the back and is seeded 5th.

Should be an interesting 400 Medley Relay to finish the evening session.

Fast & Furious!!

A determined and motivated Bonnies men's team mounted a charge from the basement in the the first complete day of competition. Starting it all off were our 500 freestyler's, Kevin Murphy and Mike Dansa who set the tone with a 5th & 6th place finish going improved finals times of 4:35.10 and 4:36.43 respectively. In the 200 IM we were paced by Chris Baker 1:53.11 and Mariusz Michalik 1:53.75 who finished 5th & 6th, also in the consolation heat Chris Happel (1:56.79) added a 14th place finish in swimming this event for the first time and Yi Liu struggled to a 16th place finish. In the 50 free Jared Robinson wound up the team with a consi winning 20.86 winning the heat while freshman Francisco Nieves improved to 21.08 for a 13 place finish. They set the table for David Kundzik and Pat Henahan to to rip off a 1-3 finish in the "dive and dash" with times of 20.61 and 20.79. With three 20's in the 50 we were really looking forward to the evenings final contest, the 200 Free Relay. The team of Kundzik, Robinson, Chris Baker and Henahan did not disappoint and brought home the title with a winning time of 1:21.97. Earlier in the day our divers finished just out of the top eight with Ryan Pietrzak 9th, Jon Larson 10th and Trevor Herzog 13th place finish.

The 200 Free Relay concluded a day of swimming that saw the Bonnies ascend from 8th to second place, just 56 points behind leading UMass. Friday looks to be another ripping day for the Bonnies who do not need to look hard for motivation. After yesterdays fast swimming the boys are looking forward to getting into the water and resuming the charge.

Wednesday done!

Well we had a little bit of both on the first night of the Atlantic-10 Swimming and Diving Championships. We started off the evening winning the 200 Medley Relay with a conference and varsity record setting 1:29.43. The team of Peter Koenig, Kevin Murphy, David Kundzik and Pat Henahan destroyed the competition in finishing just under 2 seconds ahead of second place UMass. The second relay of the evening was the 800 Free Relay and an exhilerating second place finish was wiped-out by a false start disqualification. We currently sit in eighth place just 29 points behind first place Xavier. I would not trade the way we are swimming, to get those relay points and we are very excited about what the upcoming days should hold for the men's swimmers.
Today's events are the 500 free, 200 IM and 50 free with the 200 Free Relay being contested tonight. Results can be accessed via our www.gobonnies.com website.

and away we go...

We depart Tuesday for the A-10 Championships. We will be leaving campus around 2:30 and head to Buffalo and make it home for the next 5 days while competing at the Atlantic-10 Swimming and Diving Championships. I will try to keep up to date as much as time will allow while in Buffalo but please feel free to follow along via the gobonnies.com & atlantic10.org websites. The team looks very ready to unleash six months of preparation for a chance at grabbing the championship.
Have a great week as I hope we do!!!

A-10 Schedule of Events

Here is a link to the events schedule for our A-10 Championships next Wednesday-Saturday.

http://atlantic10.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/atl10/sports/c-swim/auto_pdf/scheduleswimchamp

Alumni Weekend

I want to put out a special thanks to those alums that made it back to campus this weekend. We had some lively conversation and good times over the course of the weekend. Even though it was a sparse showing it was special and even resulted in a match race between Ekimoff and Jordan, after the men's basketball victory against LaSalle, where Chris Ekimoff took the best 2 out of 3 series.

Alums in attandance:

Cole Racho
Matt Fix
Chris Ekimoff
Scott Jordan
Mike Postles
Roman Margulis
Jimmy Wood
CJ Maurer

A-10 Seating Information

Please share with your athletes, parents and fans the following information in advance of next weeks’ championships.
PARENTS/FANS
The balcony seating area will open on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m., which is one hour prior to the start of the diving competition. All session and individual session passes may be purchased at that time.
Seating is general admission; there is NO reserved seating. If your families choose to decorate an area, please remind them that ANYONE may sit in any area if a bench is unoccupied. Balloons will be permitted again this year as well decorations as long as they do not block or impede the view of others. Any decorations or signs that are hung prior to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday will be removed and discarded. Hence, if your athletes sneak up there Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning and decorate, those decorations will be taken down.
ATHLETES
Team benches may be decorated once the seating is selected at the coaches meeting on Wednesday morning. Nothing should be hung or left in a bench area prior to Wednesday mid-morning or it will be discarded.
Your cooperation with your families and athletes is much appreciated. We hope to avoid confrontations like we’ve had in the past in the seating area due to “territorial” issues.
I look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Safe travels to western New York.
Barb
Barbara Questa
Sr. Associate Director of Athletics
St. Bonaventure University
PO Box G
St. Bonaventure, NY 14778

Weekend Wrap-up

We wrapped up the dual meet season this weekend with meets against Penn State on Friday and Home against Niagara on Saturday. The Penn State meet gave us the opportunity to see the #19 program in the country. This also gave us the opportunity to see some guys in off events. The final score of 127-105 is due to some compassion from PSU but it did serve a good purpose for us with some time improvements for our A-10 entries. The highlight of the meet was a match-up between Colin and Dan Quirk in the 50 free!!! Colin, who is at Penn State, touched out his brother Dan who is a senior for us in an emotionally charged exhibition heet of the 50!

On Saturday we hosted Niagara for our final dual meet of the season. We ended up with a strong finish with a 177-65 win over the Purple Eagles with the main focus being on three individuals who had their last opportunity to display what they could do prior to our A-10's. We have some tough cuts to make and Clayton Coleman, Dan Eisemann and Rob Erickson made the most of their final opportunity to show their worth. All three posted lifetime bests in their events: Clayton Coleman (1:43.77 200 free, 51.97 100 fly, 47.92 100 free), Dan Eisemann (9:55.15 1000 free, 4:48.58 500 free) and Rob Erickson (21.89 50 free, 1:55.95 200 back). This is a great problem to have in having some tough decisions on who will make the A-10 squad.

We are now in full rest mode and will be leaving for Buffalo next Wednesday. We had a very lively practice today and the team is looking forward to next week. We are having four recruits in this weekend for Official Visits and look forward to showing them what we are all about at SBU.

Here are links to the recent meet results:

http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/pennstateresults.html
http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/niagara2-6-09.html

Alumni Weekend

For those heading in this weekend I wanted to give a quick timeline of activities for those attending.

Friday 10:00pm: gathering at the Village Green in Olean. We are at a dual meet at Penn State and should be back around 10.

Saturday 1:00: Home Meet vs. Niagara
4:00: Reception at the Skeller
5:15: Dinner at the University Club in Hickey Dining Hall
7:00: Home men's basketball game vs. LaSalle
Post game reception in the Athletic Hall of Fame.

I am in great need of getting a rough idea on the number of people to expect so if you could please respond with names attending it would be greatly appreciated.

Catching Up

Alrighty, it has been long enough since our last posting so I am trying to catch up on a few weeks of back-up. We came off of our Winter Training in beautiful Olean with a dual meet on Jan 17 at Binghamton that resuted in a real stinker. Even though I had held out hope that training short course would result in some better post training results, it was not to be with a lack-luster but expected set of results which resulting in a 129-110 defeat at the hands of a well prepared Binghamton squad. Next we hosted Georgetown on Jan 24th and freshened up a bit with a much sharper meet and a 183-114 victory over the Hoyas.

Here are links to both of those results:

http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/binghamtonresults.html

http://gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/m-swim/stats/2008-2009/georgetownresults.html

Today, Friday, we are heading to The University at Buffalo for a 6:00 dual meet that could prove to be a real shootout. A very strong UB team that won the Akron Invite should be a good matchup for us at this point of the season. I would anticipate solid times from both teams as we look forward to seeing what we have to offer in a quality facility.

We're Baaaaaaack!!!

Yes we are back on the grounds of old SBU for some down home cooking both in the water and at the Hickey Dining Hall. We are not migrating with the vast array of teams that head South and are "old schooling" it this year. We are getting back to basics and going to find out what kind of toughness this group has over this long break. The team arrived back on Saturday and we are back in the water. Now is the time for the alums to come through with their favorite Winter Training Sets!!! I already know that Chris Devlin will reference some 400 set that was impossible but throw them out there. We have plenty of time to get all of them in, in some form and it adds to the aura as they can get a taste of the way it was!!! I hope everyone had a great Holiday and that 2009 brings joy and happiness to you and those close to you.