Men’s swimming and diving wins America East Championship
For the first time since 2003, Binghamton has won the America East Men’s Swimming & Diving Championship. In the final day of the three-day competition at NJIT on Sunday night, the Bearcats held off four-time defending champion UMBC 889-872. NJIT (614), VMI (377) and Maine (353) rounded out the team standings.
The 2021 America East Swimming & Diving Championships included the diving events that were held at Binghamton last week. The Bearcats swept the top three places in both the one- and three-meter events and senior David Walters was named the Most Outstanding Diver.
With a big lead heading into the swimming portion of the championships – the Bearcats were able to hang on for the team title.
“It was a great weekend,” head coach Jerry Cummiskey said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our team’s resilience this year to get to this point. The divers doing as well as they did last weekend really gave us the extra push to do our part. This was a total team effort top to bottom.”
On Sunday, freshman Liam Murphy won his second individual title of the meet, winning the 1000 free in a time of 9:20.40. He won the 500 free on Friday.
The event that gave the Bearcats the breathing room they’d need, however, was the 200 breaststroke. Freshman Xiaoyu Lin was second (2:00.69), followed by junior Ryan Board in third (2:01.29), freshman Henry Shemet in fifth place (2:02.34) and fellow freshman Eric Kroon in sixth place (2:03.68).
Freshman Jake Vecchio, who won the 100 fly on Friday, was second in the 200 fly on Sunday (1:48.40). Sophomore Justin Meyn was third in the 100 free (45.90).
Two of the biggest swims for Binghamton took place in the 200 backstroke – the event UMBC was poised to make its biggest move in the team standings. Freshman Christopher Ghim was fourth (1:50.86) and senior Shane Morris was sixth (1:53.01).
Prior to receiving the champions trophy, Binghamton earned two of the conference’s major awards. Board earned the Elite 18 Award based on his athletic and academic accomplishments. The Bearcat coaching staff of Cummiskey, Mike Kline and diving coach Heather Colby was named the Coaching Staff of the Year.
During the entire swimming & diving championships, Binghamton won seven individual titles - its highest total since claiming eight in 2003. In addition to Walters, Murphy and Vecchio, Board won the 100 breast on Saturday and Shemet won the 200 IM on Friday.
This marks the Binghamton Athletic Department’s first team conference championship since winning the 2016 baseball title.
The Bearcat women meanwhile finished in fourth place out of seven teams in their meet, which concluded earlier on Sunday. In the 1000 free, senior Kaitlyn Smolar was sixth (10:30.98), followed by junior Katie Schultz in seventh place (10:31.94) and freshman Mel Carousso in eighth place.
All-conference honors were awarded to the top three individual finishers and all members of the first-place relay teams. The Bearcat men tied a program record with nine all-conference selections while the women’s had a pair of honorees. Binghamton last posted nine men’s all-conference selections in 2005.
BINGHAMTON MEN’S ALL-CONFERENCE
David Walters, Ryan Cohn, Erik Temple, Ryan Board, Jake Vecchio, Henry Shemet, Liam Murphy, Justin Meyn, Xiayou LIn
BINGHAMTON WOMEN’S ALL-CONFERENCE
Sophia Howard, Lindsey Weissman