The sound of water splashing returned inside the Jones Natatorium after a month-long absence as the Eastern Michigan University men’s and women’s swimming teams played host to the University at Buffalo and Michigan State University Saturday.
The men’s team won over Buffalo 195-105 and Michigan State 209-91 and increased its MAC winning streak to 64, which is a record for any sport within the conference.
The women’s squad narrowly defeated UB 152-148 while winning over MSU 193-106.
The victories move the women’s team to 6-3 overall and 3-1 in the Mid-American Conference while the men improved to 4-1 and 1-0 in the MAC.
Both teams were back in action after winter break and stops at Florida International University and Denison University. Looking back on those pair of road meets, coach Peter Linn and the Eagles were glad to be back and competing in the home pool.
“It was mostly a training trip,” Linn said of the road swing. “It was real nice to be at home.”
The men continued to show the dominance seen at Denison after winning eight of the 12 individual swimming events.
Andrew Henry racked up three wins in the events he swam in. Henry beat teammate Brian Moore in the 200-yard freestyle by one-and-a-half seconds at a time of 1:38.38 along with wins in the 200-backstroke and 200-individual medley. Moore rebounded to win in the 100-freestyle by .85 seconds over fellow Eagle Gus Everson.
Mike Fisher grabbed a pair of victories in the 100- and 200-breaststroke events.
Senior Dan O’Connor was the Bulls’ top performer in the long distance events with wins in the 500- and 1000-freestyle. O’Connor ran away in the 1000-free, beating his UB teammate freshman Reid Zyniecki by a margin of over 16 seconds.
Senior Bryan Williams claimed the lone victory for the Spartans in the 100-yard butterfly.
The EMU men swept both relay events. The team of Cole Bateman, Kyle Aerne, Krzysztof Gilski, and Dexter Foos narrowly defeated a Buffalo relay squad by a scant .13 seconds. Foos, Moore and Everson along with Erik Gissen won in the 400-free relay.
Eastern Michigan claimed 1-2-3 finishes in the diving events and often by narrow margins.
Alex Chan scored 310.10 in the one-meter dive to beat Sage Stephens (309.50) with Daniel Gironza finishing third (288.90).
Dakoda Johnson claimed the top spot in the three-meter dive with a 323.95 score over Chan (322.35). Stephens rounded out the podium in third (304.80).
Buffalo won nine of the 12 scheduled individual swimming events, but that wasn’t enough as Eastern Michigan beat the Bulls 152-148.
Brittney Kuras compiled three wins in the 100- and 200-freestyle along with another in the 200-IM for Buffalo.
The Bulls’ Jessica Powers claimed a pair of wins in the 1000- and 500-freestyle events along with a second place to Kuras in the 200-yard free.
Buffalo’s Marissa Murphy beat EMU’s Mary Kate Maclean in the 50-free by a margin of .09 seconds.
Monica Dorszewski continued to remain consistent in the breaststroke events with two wins in the 100- and 200- breaststroke. Jessie Godlewski claimed the other win for Eastern Michigan in the 200-butterfly.
The women’s squad secured the meet with a win in the 400-freestyle relay as the team of Godlewski, Rebecca Detro, Sierra Wagner and Grace Van Allen beat a Bulls relay squad of Powers, Murphy, Taylor Steffl and Melissa Trail by 2.76 seconds.
The day started with the women’s three-meter dive and Lauren Dark running away with victory for Eastern Michigan.
Dark scored 315.80 over UB’s Ava Giachino (269.70) and EMU teammate Melynee Saya (266.90).
Danielle Hulvey rebounded from a fourth place finish in the three-meter dive with a win in the one-meter event. Hulvey posted a 297.20 score over Dark (285.00) and Saya (262.70) as part of an Eagles 1-2-3.
“The women really see-sawed back and forth every other event,” Linn said. “The lead would change and come down to the final event and they found a way to go a lot faster than they’ve gone, and that’s a tribute to their mental toughness.”
Both swimming teams will return to action at the Jones Natatorium as the Eagles prepare to play host to Wayne State University Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. and the Ohio State University along with Ball State University Jan. 25 at 1 p.m.
