The Niagara University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams kick off the 2016-17 season with a dual meet against the Fredonia State Blue Devils on Friday, Oct. 7 at 5 p.m. The Purple Eagles are coming off of a strong performance at the 2016 MAAC Championships in Buffalo, N.Y. where four program records were broken. Niagara opens against a Fredonia squad that both the men’s and women’s teams defeated in last season’s dual meet.
In the annual MAAC Coaches’ Preseason Poll, the men’s swimming and diving team was picked to finish sixth out of 10 teams. Niagara finished in sixth place at the 2016 MAAC Championships. Their 367 points represented a great improvement from the team’s 300-point, seventh-place finish at the 2015 MAAC Championships.
Shawn Warner led the way at the MAAC Championships a season ago, setting a school record in the 200 IM with a time of 1:50.70. Nicolas Winograd also made his own mark on the Niagara record books with a 57.94 in the 100 breaststroke. Warner teamed up with Robert Brown, James Crumm, and Eric Ebert to set the school’s 400 free relay record at 3:04.27 with a fourth-place finish at the MAAC Championships.
Andreas Rintel was the other freshman to set a Niagara record a season ago, swimming a 54.56 in the 100 IM during a dual meet at the University of Waterloo on Nov. 7 2015. That time was the best 100 IM finish by any MAAC swimmer last season. Warner’s 51.03 in the 100 butterfly in a Jan. 23 dual meet with Canisius was the fifth-best time among MAAC swimmers in that event during the 2015-16 season, and his 1:54.25 in the 200 butterfly at that same meet ranked third.
In the annual MAAC Coaches’ Preseason Poll, the women’s swimming and diving team was picked to finish seventh out of 10 teams. Niagara finished seventh at the MAAC Championships in February 2016, picking up 237 points at the four-day meet. Sydney Kligys earned her third individual program record in a Nov. 7, 2015 dual meet at the University of Waterloo, swimming a 1:02.10 in the 100 IM.
The relay team of Kligys, Annie Eckhardt, Julia Casolo, and Emily York set Niagara records in both the 400 medley relay (3:59.57) and the 400 free relay (3:35.29) a year ago. Kligys (57.59) and Casolo (57.95) recorded the MAAC’s two fastest times in the 100 butterfly at the 2015 Zippy Invitational. Previously, Kligys set the Niagara record in that event at 56.78 during the 2014-15 season. Kligys’ 24.28 in the 50 free, 27.23 in the 50 back, and 1:02.10 in the 100 IM were all the third-best times in the MAAC in those events last season. Brianna Smith set a MAAC top-10 time for the 2015-16 season with a time of 2:09.14 in the 200 back at the 2015 Zippy Invitational.
from PurpleEagles.com via IFTTT
