Men second, women fourth at America East Swimming & Diving Championships
Egan named Most Outstanding Diver, Board wins second event
Sophomore Chris Egan was named the men’s Most Outstanding Diver and fellow sophomore Ryan Board won his second event in as many nights, highlighting Binghamton’s performance in the final day of the America East Swimming & Diving Championships, which are being hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The Bearcat men were the runner up for the third year in a row while the women were a close fourth. There were four men’s teams and seven women’s squads competing at the meet.
“We are very pleased with the week we had here in Worcester,” head coach Jerry Cummiskey said “Both teams competed hard all week and scored more points than they had in previous years. We swam very hard and established a great presence at the meet.”
Egan became the first Binghamton diver to sweep both the one- and three-meter competitions with his victories earlier in the meet. He is the third Bearcat in three years to be named the Most Outstanding Diver at the America East Championships. Current junior David Walters was men’s MOD in 2018 while current sophomore Amanda McGraw was the women’s MOD last year.
Board, meanwhile, concluded his sweep of the two breaststroke events with his victory in the 200 competition. His time was 2:01.52. Board set the meet record in the 100 event on Saturday with a time of 54.97. The last Binghamton swimmer to win both breaststroke events at the America East Championships was Robert Kaczynski in 2005.
Sophomore Katie Schultz was the women’s top finisher on Sunday, placing second in the 1,650 free with a time of 17:22.16. Senior Olivia Santos was fourth in the 100 free (52.09).
Santos returned to anchor the women’s 400 free relay team to a second-place finish with a school-record time of 3:27.53. She was joined by junior Kaitlyn Smolar, senior Rebecca Nelson and freshman Manuela Matkovic. The previous school record of 3:28.19 was set in 2011.
Also on the men’s side, senior Ross Bernstein was fourth in the 200 fly (1:51.04) and freshman Zach Ciriaco was fourth in the 1,650 free (16:00.23).
All-conference honors were awarded to the top three finishers in individual events as well as everyone on a first-place relay team. Binghamton had five men and four women named all-conference.
“I am so proud of how our teams competed not just this week, but all season,” Cummiskey said. “The program is heading in a great direction and we are excited to get back to work for what’s to come.”
Men’s final team results
- UMBC - 1,051
- Binghamton - 807
- Maine - 575
- Virginia Military Institute - 468
Women’s final team results
- New Hampshire - 876
- UMBC - 759.5
- Vermont - 493.5
- Binghamton - 486.5
- Maine - 396
- Stony Brook - 253.5
- Virginia Military Institute - 129