The Boston University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams swept the University of Massachusetts Amherst Minutemen teams at the FitRec Competition Pool Saturday.
The women’s team (2-2, 1-2 Patriot League) clinched a decisive 155.5-142.5 win over UMass Amherst (0-2), thanks to three event wins at the end of the meet.
Senior Sophia Souza had a strong diving performance, achieving season bests winning the 1-meter (298.13) and finishing second in the 3-meter (302.63).
Junior Haley Newman followed up with a win in the 200-yard individual medley (2:09.65), one of three wins she would secure in the meet. Finally, junior Stella Langenbach pulled away with a crucial anchor leg to give the Terriers the win in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:34.99).
Head coach James Sica was impressed with the team’s resilience, which gave them the motivation to finish the meet strong and earn them the win.
“There were some nerves, and [I] was like, ‘Just fight, stay in your lane,’” Sica said. “It’s not about the time that’s going to show up in the end. It’s just about fighting every single yard of this swim.”
The freshmen also had strong races to give the lady Terriers the upper hand.
Distance specialist freshman Katie Pestrichelli won the 500-yard (5:11.59) and 1,000-yard freestyle (10:45.58). Freshmen Cambria Jewett and Abby Han won the 200-yard backstroke (2:05.28) and 100-yard backstroke (57.85) respectively.
Meanwhile, the men’s team (3-1, 2-1 PL) defeated the men’s UMass Amherst team (0-2) 169-131, earning nine event wins in the process.
Notable event sweeps came from senior Justin Liao in the 100-yard (57.63) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:07.51), sophomore Jonny Farber in the 100-yard (51.78) and 200-yard backstroke (1:50.85) and freshman Giovanni Sullo in the 500-yard (4:40.32) and 1,000-yard freestyle (9:43.13).
Sica commented on how much the freshmen, from both the women’s and men’s teams, made an impact on the roster. The teams consist of 19 first-year students out of the 60 total swimmers in the program.
“They bring great energy. They bring great enthusiasm,” Sica said. “But they want to be here. They want to work hard, they want to push the team forward and they want to contribute.”
The Terriers will host their 18th annual Terrier Invite from Nov. 22-24, one of their biggest meets of the season.
