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Men's Swimmers Finish Fourth As SummaCare Meet Concludes

Connor Vander Zalm

AKRON, OH – The University at Buffalo men’s swimming and diving team ended the three-day SummaCare Invitational at the University of Akron with a fourth-place showing as the Bulls improved from last season’s sixth-place finish.

The Bulls finished with 1,162 points, just a half-point shy of third-place Clarion’s total (1,162.5). Mid-American Conference rival Ohio won the team title with 1,322 points while Duquesne was second with 1,240 points. Following behind the Bulls were St. Bonaventure (1,064.5), Xavier (1,036), Shippensburg (788) and Bloomsburg (377). Not only did the Bulls improve on their placing at this season’s meet, they improved their team score by nearly 300 points over last season’s six-team meet.

The Bulls accumulated 15 lifetime-best swims on Sunday as UB swimmers reached the championship final in each of the final night’s six events. In the three-day meet, the Bulls posted 31 lifetime-best swims or dives.

Freshman Connor Vander Zalm (Kelowna, British Columbia/Kelowna) scored a victory for the Bulls in the grueling 1,650-yard freestyle. Vander Zalm conquered the mile distance in 16:13.96, eight seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Chris Kobela of Duquesne.

UB scored three championship finalists in the 200-yard backstroke as all three swimmers posted best times along the way. Freshman Andrew Tamchyna (Newmarket, Ontario/Newmarket) placed second with a lifetime-best time of 1:52.67, less than seven-tenths of a second behind Scott Darwin of Duquesne (1:51.99). Sophomore Zach Ruske (Monarch, CO/Superior) put together a lifetime-best of his own with his 1:53.47 clocking in the final to place third. Senior Luke Adams (Quinnesec, MI/Kingsford) finished fifth in the final in 1:54.74. Adams scored a season best with his 1:54.74 showing in the morning preliminaries.

Freshman Kevin Song (Ottawa, Ontario/Sir Robert Borden) scored a third-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke with his time of 2:10.06, just missing his lifetime-best of 2:10.01, which he set in the morning swim. Freshman Jordan Matthews (Burnt Hills, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) picked up a lifetime best in the B final, finishing second in 2:13.69, tenth overall.

UB also had a pair of fourth-place finishers on Sunday night. Sophomore Kevin Schuster (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) placed fourth in the 100-yard freestyle in 47.39, one-hundredth off his lifetime best set in the preliminaries. In the 200-yard butterfly, freshman Scott Woster (North Pole, AK/North Pole) posted a lifetime best with his 1:55.99 clocking. Junior Mike Hurst (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) was eighth in the butterfly final in 1:58.91 after posting a lifetime-best time of 1:58.43 in the preliminary round.

The Bulls closed the meet with a seventh-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The foursome of Ruske, Schuster, sophomore Richard Shi (Ottawa, Ontario/Merivale) and Adams touched the wall in 3:11.12.