Swim & Dive prepared for record season
SWIMMING & DIVING TEAMS READY FOR RECORD-SETTING SEASON
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Having lost just five scoring members from a year ago, the Bryant University men's and women's swimming and diving teams head into the 2012-13 season with high hopes and the chance to reach heights unseen for the Bulldogs.
Both teams posted their highest finishes ever at the Northeast Conference Championships and the ECAC Championships, respectively, with the women finishing fourth and the men earning a seventh-place finish. This season, both will look to improve upon those marks as the women were picked to finish second in the annual preseason coaches' poll, while the men will be competing in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) for the first time in school history.
On the women's side, the Black and Gold return all but two swimmers from last year's team that set four NEC records at the conference meet and finished with 547 points. Leading the way will be three-time NEC Swimmer of the Year, senior Casey Ostrander (Yarmouthport, Mass.). She has collected nine gold medals in her three years at the conference championships and is shooting to become the first swimmer in league history to win the swimmer of the year award four times. Last season, she set two conference records and earned an NCAA "B" cut in the 100 back with a time of 54.92. Entering the season, she owns four individual school records and is a member of four school-record relay teams.
Joining Ostrander will be classmates Brianne Dwyer (Hicksville, N.Y.) and Molly Smith (Belmont, Mass.) and junior Taylor DeBever (Denver, Colo.). Dwyer and Smith are Bryant's top breaststrokers, while DeBever has proven herself to be one of the top free and backstrokers behind Ostrander. Dwyer earned a fourth-place finish in the 100 breast at the NEC Championships and Smith finished second in the 200 breast, setting a school record with a time of 2:20.30. She currently holds five school records. A gold medalist in the 200 free as a freshman, DeBever followed up with a silver and a pair of bronze medals last season at the championships. She also helped the 200 and 400 free relay teams set NEC records.
The Bulldogs will also look to a strong group of underclassmen that include sophomores Caitlin Hanahoe (Eden Prairie, Minn.) and Mara Valenzuela (Bridgewater, N.J.), and freshmen Julia Messina (Canandaigua, N.Y.) and Maria Messina (Canandaigua, N.Y.) and Jamie Schaefer (Durham, N.C.). Sophomore diver Kailey Frye also returns after a successful rookie season and will be joined on the board by freshman Courtney Tardif.
On the men's side, the Bulldogs will feature one of their strongest teams in the history of the program. They'll also be competing for a conference championship for the first time since their days in the Northeast-10. Bryant's success in 2012-13 starts and ends with graduate student Alex Kosenski (Lavallette, N.J.). The most decorated swimmer in Bryant's history, Kosenski decided to return to the Black and Gold for his final season of eligibility after nearly rewriting the entire record book last season. He holds school records in the 50, 100 and 200 free and is a member of four school-record relay teams.
Behind Kosenski, the Bulldogs will return a majority of their point scorers that helped set 16 school records and score a program record 231.5 points at last season's ECAC Championships. A stellar junior class will help the Black and Gold as they compete for a MAAC title. Nicholas Karadimas (New Milford, Conn.), Cameron Hessler (Southbury, Conn.) and Derek Hawkes (Westbrook, Maine) are all coming off stellar sophomore campaigns. Hessler broke school records in the 100 and 200 back at the ECACs and Karadimas has been an integral part of Bryant's school records in the 200, 400 and 800 free and the 200 medley.
Like the women's team, the men will rely on a strong core of underclassmen. Graham Beck (Danvers, Mass.) is coming off an outstanding rookie season in which he set school records in the 100 and 200 breast and the 500 free. He and classmate John Lawson (Bernardsville, N.J.) also found themselves on three school-record relay squads. Bryant also welcomes a freshmen class that features a pair of high school All-Americans. Joshua Bjornberg (Wallingford, Conn.) was an All-American breaststroker at Mark T. Sheehan, while Conor Makepeace (Wallingford, Conn.) was an All-American diver at rival Lyman Hall. Makepeace will also become the first-ever male diver in program history.
The Bulldogs open their season this Friday, Oct. 12 when they head to Chestnut Hill, Mass., to face Boston College. Last season, the women earned their first-ever victory over the Eagles.