The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will take on an America East opponent Saturday when they travel to the University of Maine.
Both the Maine men’s and women’s teams are coming off losses to Yale University. The Terriers would like to add to their win totals, and they will have a good chance of doing that against Maine.
‘We should be favored to win both of these meets,’ said BU Coach Reagh Wetmore. ‘We can beat them in many more events than they can beat us.’
The BU men and women have both benefited this season from strong diving, and Wetmore doesn’t expect that to change this weekend.
‘They have a lot of divers, but only three count and their divers aren’t as good as ours,’ Wetmore said.
Sophomore Victor Paguia has dominated all year for the men, and sophomore Sylvia Golle has been a standout for the women. The women have also gotten solid diving from juniors Stacey Gallacher and Kristen Stratton.
The women enter the meet coming off their first win of the season against Stony Brook University. With the win, they moved to 1-4 overall on the season. They would like to get a winning streak going this weekend against Maine, but they might have to do it without some key swimmers.
Both sophomore freestyle swimmer Lauren Foster and senior backstroke swimmer Kelli Sweeting have been out sick from practice all week.
‘I’m a little concerned if they have to miss the meet,’ Wetmore said.
The women would be at a great disadvantage in the backstroke event without Sweeting.
The Maine women also have a strong sprinter who could pose a problem for BU. Freshman star Meagan Breiland has dominated the 50 and 100 free events this season, and she is capable of winning the sprints.
‘She’ll have to swim her best to win,’ Wetmore said.
Despite some strong Maine swimmers, Wetmore is confident that a healthy BU women’s team should score a victory.
‘If everybody’s there, we should beat them,’ Wetmore said.
The men are looking to get their season back on track against Maine. After winning their first meet of the season against the University of New Hampshire, the men dropped the next three meets. They will have a good chance to end the losing streak this weekend.
Freshman freestyle swimmer Mike Kelly won many races early but has struggled against tough opponents the last two meets. Kelly will face another tough opponent at Maine.
‘He’ll have to get up and go fast to beat this guy,’ Wetmore said.
While the 50 and 100 free will be tough, Wetmore feels his team has a definite advantage in the 200, 500 and 1000 free.
‘In the distance events we should have no problem,’ Wetmore said. ‘I don’t think they could come near us there.’ Senior Doug Mark won the 500 free in the last meet against Stony Brook and he took second in the 1000 the meet before that against the University of Connecticut.
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