TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

You currently have the fifth best time in the conference in the 400-yard individual medley and you are the only swimmer not from Eastern Michigan in that top five. What are your goals in that event as you head into the MAC Championships?
I just hope to make finals and place as high as possible, get a best time and see where that puts me. Hopefully, it’s pretty high up there.

One of the things that head coach Budd Termin prides himself in is that swimmers that come to UB will improve upon their lifetime bests. In your case, you have hit lifetime bests in six events at UB. What are some things you attribute that to?
I think that we improve so much here because of the training that we do and some of the opportunities that we have to take advantage of. There’s a lot of opportunities that we have here that a lot of teams don’t have and I think we see a better rate of improvement than most other teams in the whole country.

Your brother, Mike, is a sophomore on the team and is currently ranked seventh in the conference in the 200-yard individual medley. You are ranked third. Is there a big rivalry between the two of you to always try to one-up each other?
Not really. I am the older brother, so hopefully, I’m on top most of the time. His 200-butterfly is getting pretty fast and that one is getting close. I have to be on the lookout for him on the outside sometimes.

You have swum in a variety of races, from the backstroke to the butterfly to the freestyle. Which stroke is the toughest for you and which is the easiest?
I think freestyle, since I swim the shorter races, I just prefer doing that because it’s just a little easier. You don’t have to go as far. For me backstroke is the hardest, a lot of people say it’s the butterfly but that’s not my opinion

Coach Budd Termin has brought to Buffalo many revolutionary technologies that have helped the swimmers, including designing a new swimsuit that was used in the 2004 Olympics. What are some things that Coach Termin makes you do in training that you’d never seen before?
The main thing that we have here that is unique to our program is the training lights that we have. We have lights that go on the bottom of the pool and he programs them for a certain time and you know exactly where you’re supposed to be, right above the light. You also have a beeper which tells you what stroke rate you’re supposed to be at, how fast your arms should be moving, so you kind of get locked in and you know exactly what you should be doing. They patented that.

You decided to come to Buffalo after having also been recruited by St. Bonaventure and Hamilton. What made you decide that UB and Coach Budd Termin’s team was the place to be?
The academics here are really good, in comparison with some other schools. Also, just the opportunity to utilize some of the stuff that Budd has made available to the swimmers. It’s just unparalleled.

You’ve swam with club teams for more than 10 years now. How important do you think swimming as part of a club has been in your development as a swimmer?
Very important. If you’re not a club swimmer, swimming in the summertime, because you can only swim high school a couple months of the year, that’s just not enough. You have to swim in the summer if you want to swim in college.

At Greece Athena High School outside of Rochester, you won two sectional titles your senior year and also won the Monroe County Swimmer of the Year honors. How much fun was it to cap off your high school career in that fashion?
It was pretty great to go out on top like that. That’s kind of what you hope to build up to your whole high school career. You want to get there and be on top your senior year. It’s just a great experience to have that happen.

You list South Park as one of your favorite shows and also say that Cartman is a carton character you could see yourself being, but who is your favorite bit character on the show?
That is an excellent question. Timmy and Jimmy are quite the combination right there. They’re hilarious.

What has been your favorite moment as a UB student-athlete?
I think when one year we upset Miami (OH). It was huge. We haven’t beat them in a long time. I don’t even know the last time we beat them, but when we did it was a big upset and it felt really great to do that.

“The 10 Questions With…” feature is compiled by Joe Guistina.