The Niagara University Purple Eagles men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams is headed to Akron, Ohio this weekend to conclude the 2016 portion of their schedule at the annual Zippy Invitational, hosted by the University of Akron. In the team’s biggest event before February’s MAAC Championships, Niagara will look to set more school records after breaking three at last year’s event.
Both the Niagara men and women will be competing against their counterparts from Bloomsburg, Clarion, Cornell, Oakland, St. Bonaventure, and Wheeling Jesuit. The women will also be competing against swimmers and divers from MAC schools Akron, Buffalo, and Toledo. Niagara will compete with Buffalo again later this season in a dual meet on Jan. 14, 2017.
The Niagara men turned in two stellar performances in their last weekend of competition. The Purple Eagles defeated the University of Waterloo Warriors 115-73 on Nov. 5 before winning all 13 events in a 157-78 victory over Colgate on Nov. 6. Alexander Pizzo and Shawn Warner were double-winners in individual events during both meets, while JaRon Williams swept the men’s 1-meter and 3-meter diving against Colgate. Daniel Ronen had a strong weekend in the 1000 free, finishing second to Pizzo in 10:08.03 against Waterloo before winning the event versus Colgate with a time of 10:10.48. Robert Brown took home a pair of 50 free wins that weekend as well, swimming a 22.16 against Waterloo and a 21.82 against Colgate. Julia Casolo led the Niagara women with another pair of 100 butterfly victories. Casolo took first versus Waterloo in 58.82 before swimming a season-low 58.32 in the Colgate meet. Lauren Nicastro (2:01.67) and Marlane Hochgraf (2:05.64) gave Niagara a 2-3 finish in the 200 free against Waterloo. Kristen Suarez won two individual events in the weekend, winning the 100 free in the Waterloo meet with a time of 55.70 and the 50 free against Colgate with a time of 25.15.
Niagara broke three records in 400-meter relays at last year’s Zippy Invitational as the men’s team took fourth out of seven and the women finished sixth out of eight. Sydney Kligys, Annie Eckhardt, Julia Casolo, and Emily York teamed up to set Niagara records in both the women’s 400 medley relay (3:59.57) and the women’s 400 free relay (3:35.71). Robert Brown, Nick Rogers, James Crumm, and Eric Ebert set the men’s 400 free relay record at the Zippy Invitational with a time of 3:07.21. Daniel Ronen (4:41.50) and Alexander Pizzo (4:44.00) took seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 500 free. Andreas Rintel swam a career-best 1:55.83 in the 200 IM.
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