While many students on campus were celebrating Halloween, the Boston University swimming and diving teams were in the BU Fitness and Recreation Center’s Competition Pool for a double dual meet against Army West Point and Boston College on Friday evening.
Women’s swimming and diving (2-2, 1-2 Patriot League) ended the meet with split results: a 168-75 win against BC (1-4) and a 131-112 loss against Army (6-3, 1-0 PL). The win against the Eagles marks BU’s first victory over the crosstown rivals since 2019.
The men’s team (2-2, 2-1 PL) fell short to both teams, losing 128-115 to the Eagles (3-2) and 135-108 to Army (4-3, 1-0 PL).
What these narrow defeats don’t show are the positives threaded throughout the evening.
In just the third meet of her collegiate career, freshman swimmer Kiki Rampersad broke two school records.
First, she won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.79, improving upon Emily Munday’s record set in 2010.
Rampersad also contributed to a new 200-yard freestyle relay record alongside an all-rookie squad of Molly Barber, Danka Ndubuisi and Lily Osborn. The group won the event with a time of 1:31.87, beating the record that was set last year.
“I’m honestly super stoked, and I kind of shocked myself at this meet,” Rampersad said. “I’m really proud of our women’s team so far. It’s not even the end of our midseason, and we’re doing so well.”
BU Head Coach James Sica said Rampersad’s coachability and willingness to apply feedback has contributed to her rapid growth.
“She radiates positivity, even early for those morning swims,” Sica said. “She’s excited to do the work, and is really coachable. She takes feedback and implements it.”
Barber and Ndubuisi also contributed individual results to the win count for the women’s team: Barber won the 50-yard freestyle at 22.77, while Ndubuisi won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:04.01 and the 100-yard backstroke at 55.30.
The men’s team also found individual event wins and successes throughout the evening.
Sophomore Giovanni Sullo won in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:31.06 and graduate student Tony Ponomarev won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 48.92. On the diving side, junior Zein Mahana swept the 1-meter and 3-meter events with scores of 286.85 and 339.50, respectively.
Mahana had the support of rookie divers to make the Terriers’ diving presence salient. Freshman Ethan Wong, who was awarded a Patriot League Diver of the Week title earlier this season, finished second in the 3-meter with a score of 290.00.
Freshman Tyler Robinson was the runner-up in the 1-meter with a score of 269.50.
Sica said the newscomers have “raised the bar” due to their competitive drive.
“All of them have been making an impact,” he said. “In practice, there’s always somebody pushing the limit of what they think might be possible, and that just makes everybody better.”
These are promising results considering the strength of the competition — Army boasted strong finishes at last season’s Patriot League Championships, where the men were crowned champions and the women finished in second.
Sica discussed the importance of competing against the Black Knights early in the season.
“There’s a reason that we schedule these meets in the fall, so that we can see good competition and know who we’re going to see in championship season in February,” Sica said. “It helps us prepare, make adjustments and be at our best … If that’s where we want to be, that’s who we got to compete against.”
The Terriers now travel to central Massachusetts for a dual meet against the University of Massachusetts Amherst Nov. 8 — their final competition before the annual midseason Terrier Invite.