A month of intense physical conditioning paid off for both Buffalo swimming and diving teams on Wednesday as the men downed Niagara University 107-73 and the women also handily beat the Purple Eagles 120-82.
"We just came off from four hard weeks of Christmas break training," said men's head coach Budd Termin. "This is the time of the season where we get everybody in top shape, and then we swim the rest of the season out with what we build up."
As seniors Jeff Hurst, Kevin Gately and Kurt Bessel said goodbye in the final home meet of their careers in front of a packed Alumni Natatorium, the Bulls (2-2 overall) trounced the Purple Eagles (5-4 overall) for the 26th consecutive time.
Hurst led Buffalo as one of two Bulls to take home wins in two different individual events. Hurst won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 1:58.31 as well as the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.68. The senior was also part of a relay victory accompanied by sophomore Leandro Souza, freshman Richard Shi and junior Aaron Moessinger as the foursome won the 400-yard medley relay in 3:39.00.
Not to be outdone, Senior Kevin Gatley also showed off his leadership skills in his final home meet as he took home a victory in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:47.16, while junior Luke Adams was the only other Buffalo swimmer besides Hurst to take home two victories. Adams won both the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle with times of 9:55.63 and 4:44.08, respectively.
"The performances were pretty good even though we had trained so hard," Termin said about his team after the meet.
Also winning individual events for the Bulls were sophomore Mike Hurst, who won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:00.57, Shi who won the 200-yard backstroke with a blistering time of 1:59.15 and Souza who won the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:19.33.
The Buffalo women proved to be just as successful as the men, as they beat their Western New York rival by winning eight of 13 events.
The Bulls started the match with a bang as the four-woman team of freshman Rachel Sorg, junior Danielle Gervais, senior Jennifer Raimondi and sophomore Andrea Scharf won the 400-yard medley relay in a time of 4:06.71. Gervais, Raimondi and Scharf then carried their team momentum into the individual competition as each took home first place in individual races.
"It was outstanding coming off from a training trip," women's head coach Scott Vanderzell said about his team's performance. "They really swam well. They swam very smart races."
Gervais won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:15.93, then with a time of 55.16.00, Scharf won the 100-yard freestyle. Raimondi then rounded out the victories with a win of her own in the in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:13.81.
Also winning races for Buffalo were Eugenie Viale with a victory in the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10:51.78, Kahla Walkinshaw who won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.37 and Meghan Lafferty who won the 50-yard freestyle in 25.12.
Megan Stratton was the lone Buffalo diver to win an event, as she was victorious in the one-meter diving event with a six-dive combined score of 194.48 points.
Up next for both Bulls' squads is a trip to Athens to compete against the teams' conference foes, the Ohio Bobcats.
"The next meet we have is down in Athens, and it should be a pretty close meet," Termin said. "They usually swim particularly well at home. We have a rough time with them in their own pool, so there should be a lot of close races."
Termin added that although he expects to face a tough Bobcat team, he feels his swimmers are up to the challenge.
"We did everything over Christmas break," Termin said when asked if he has any special training planned for the Ohio squad. "Our fitness and conditioning is good now, we are just polishing up as the meets go. We are going to try to keep improving all the way out through this year and the conference championships."
Vanderzell said on the women's side, his swimmers' keys to success are a little rest and some game-day team chemistry.
"We can always continue to improve on our race strategy and a little more rest will help us swim a little bit better too," he said. "We need good team work and solid swimming. We'll let everything else take care of itself."
Both Bulls' squads will travel to Athens, N.Y., on Saturday for a 1 p.m. meet.
