Bulldogs set for America East Championships
SMITHFIELD, R.I. - The Bryant University men's swimming & diving team hit the road this week for the America East Championships in Lexington, VA hosted by VMI on Feb. 14-17th.
The Bulldogs are looking to improve upon their third place finish at last year's championships and grab their first conference title since they won the NEC title in 2022.
Freestyle Events
James Misto, Conner Lofstrom, Nick Andrews, Leo Luna, Griffen Schimmel, and Christian Pererira will look to lock down the freestyle events for the Black and Gold. Misto is coming off his best performance of the season in the 50 free against Boston University with a time of 20.61, which seeds him at seventh going into the championships. Lofstrom is ranked ninth in the America East in the 100 free and 15th in the 200. Andrews will look to help Lofstrom hold it down in the 200, as the freshman sits at 14th in the event. Luna will be coming out strong in the distance events and looking to defend his 2023 title in the 1650 free. The junior is ranked ninth in the 200, fifth in the 500, first in the 1000, and fourth in the 1650 heading into the competition. Schimmel heads into the championships ranked fifth in the 1000 and 14th in the 1650 free. Freshman Pererira rounds out the group sitting at 16th in the 1650 free.
Backstroke Events
Griffin Lajoie, Roman San Juan, and Jack Ossi will be tackling the backstroke events for Bryant. Lajoie will be looking to continue his dominance in the backstroke and defend his 2023 titles in the 100 and 200 events. Lajoie currently ranks seventh in the 100 and eighth in the 200. Going into the event San Juan ranks 12th in the 100 while Ossi sits in the same position in the 200 back.
Breaststroke Events
Gustav Persson, Jason Yi, and Jack Ferguson are set to take on the breaststroke events. Persson leads the way for the Bulldogs in the event. The graduate student is seeded sixth in the 100 and fourth in the 200 going into the preliminary rounds. Freshman Yi is right behind him though, holding down eighth in the 100 as well as fifth in the 200. Ferguson rounds out the breaststrokers with his rankings of 12th in the 100 and 11th in the 200.
Butterfly Events
A strong freshman group and a solid returning corp are set to take on the butterfly events for Bryant. Freshmen Timothy Andreews and Misto are ranked top-10 in the 100 and 200 events. Andrews sits at tenth in the 100 and ninth in the 200 while Misto is ranked sixth in the 100. Sophomore Aidan Tremery and junior Andrew Gamper round out the top-10 qualifiers with the pair sitting seventh and eighth in the 200 fly event.
Individual Medley Events
Trenery, Persson, San Juan, and Gamper will all be racing in the individual medley events as well. Trenery is the highest ranked heading into the championships as he sits at fifth in the 200. Persson backs him up in the 200, currently sitting at ninth. San Juan and Gamper are set to take on the 400 with San Juan ranked 13th and Gamper 16th going into the event.
Relay Events
The men's relay teams currently sit middle of the pack in the America East and will be looking to pull off upsets at the championships. The relay teams are currently ranked fourth in the 400 medley and 800 free. They are also ranked fifth in the 200 medley, 200 free, and 400 free relays.
Diving Events
Christopher Buonocore leads the diving squad heading into the championships. He enters the event ranked first in the 3 meter at 339.38 and second in the 1 meter at 312.83. Will Arnold follows him up with rankings of seventh in the 3m and eighth in the 1m.