The Boston University men and women entered the America East Swimming and Diving championships with hopes of returning to the forefront of the conference. And with Victor Paguia and Lidjia Breznikar leading the way for their respective teams, BU didn’t disappoint.
The men’s squad finished third in the three-day event behind the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Binghamton University, while the women placed in fourth with 434 points behind first-place Northeastern University and its 765 points at the University of Maine’s Stanley M. Wallace Pool.
Paguia has been there all season for BU, and he certainly was there this weekend. With wins in both the one- and three-meter dives, the junior was named the men’s Most Outstanding Diver for the third straight year after capturing his third-straight one-meter diving title and his second-straight title for the three-meter dive.
Breznikar, whom BU coach Reagh Wetmore called “the most outstanding member of the team,” won the 400-yard individual medley to help lead the Terriers. Over her first year swimming at BU, the sophomore was perfect in dual meets, compiling a 24-0 record.
On the men’s side, UMBC set a conference record by accumulating 901 points in the meet, far surpassing the previous record of 809.5 set by Drexel University in 2001. Binghamton was next with 574 points, and BU placed third with 509 points.
The award for the men’s diving Coaching Staff of the Year went to BU Coach Agnes Miller and her assistants.
The BU women’s team finished fourth behind Northeastern, UMBC and the University of New Hampshire in what was Northeastern’s fifth-straight championship.
Junior swimmer Lauren Foster said she was pleased with the team’s showing.
“Our goal going into the meet was to place in the top half,” she said. “We consider this a successful year because we moved up in the rankings. We ended up in the top of the conference, which we haven’t done in the past few years.”
Foster placed fifth in the women’s 200-yard freestyle race and was on the team that placed third in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
“We have a lot of talent, but we need to work on having a lot of depth,” she added.
Wetmore said that the goal was to place third in both of the competitions, but BU was missing some of its key swimmers.
“We weren’t at full-strength at this meet, which I think is important to point out,” he said. “I think that may have made the difference between third and fourth place.
“As far as each individual, they swam as fast and as hard as they could,” Wetmore added. “I would say that 90 percent of them swam their best at this meet, especially the relays.”
The UMBC men’s team – which joined the America East Conference at the beginning of the 2003-04 season – made it a difficult competition for the other seven teams in the conference, beating out its closest competitor by more than 300 points. Senior Brad Green of UMBC broke two conference records and earned the men’s Most Outstanding Swimmer award.
Wetmore, who said that he knew from preliminary reports that UMBC was capable of dominating the meet, called both UMBC teams “unbelievable.”
Several members of the BU men’s team made strong showings. Sophomore Michael Kelly came in second in the 100-yard freestyle and third in the 200-yard freestyle – a race he had not swam yet in college. Freshman Griffin Moodie placed third in the 100-yard breaststroke and senior Jay Toutant took fourth in the 100-yard backstroke.
Kelly – who won the 100-yard freestyle in last year’s championship – said he felt some pressure to repeat but recognized that UMBC’s Green would make that difficult.
The 200-yard relay team consisting of Kelly, Toutant, sophomore Michael McGrath and junior Chris Collins placed third in its event, prompting Kelly to say that he was proud of the his team’s performance.
“I think everyone swam really well,” he said, “especially considering that the level of competition in the conference was that much tougher.”
But Wetmore said as good as the swim teams were, it was the diving teams that really kept them in the meet.
In the women’s one-meter diving competition, BU had four divers finish in the championship round, with senior Stacey Gallacher leading the way with a second-place finish. Senior Kristin Stratton came in fourth, sophomore Kathleen Cunningham grabbed sixth and freshman Megan White finished in seventh to round out the field for the Terriers. The same competitors placed second, third, eighth and fifth, respectively, in the three-meter dive.
On the men’s side, BU junior James Yon placed fourth in the three-meter dive and sixth in the one-meter dive. Freshman Craig Fritch placed fifth in both competitions.
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