Despite the weather outside, winter is slowly coming to end at Oswego State, and with that, so are winter sports. The men’s and women’s swimming team’s seasons finished up last week, went at the SUNYAC Championship meet in Buffalo.

The men’s team went 9-1 this season, with the only loss coming at the very beginning of the season to Rochester Institute of Technology. In the SUNYAC championship meet, the Lakers placed second and were led by Laker Athlete of the Week J.J. Alaniz, who finished first in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:55.98. 

The women’s team went 6-4 overall but swam strong in the SUNYAC, finishing third overall. In the SUNYAC championship, the team was led by Female Laker Athlete of the Week Riley Synan, who broke the school record in the 200-yard fly with a time of 2:07.88 and finished third overall in the event.

“They did great,” head coach Mike Holman said about the team’s performance this year. “I certainly had some goals coming into the season, and I absolutely think we exceeded them. I think both teams placed higher than I thought we probably would.” 

Holman said the journey to the SUNYAC Championship has been a long journey.

“Not too long ago we were at the bottom,” Holman said. “It’s been a lot of work, a lot of effort and a lot of trying to get the right people together.”

Synan said the team’s effort was clear.

“I think, for each meet, we did as well as we could of,” Synan said. “Our overall record was pretty good going into [SUNYACs], and then at SUNYAC’s, we did so much better than I was expecting … To beat two super good teams like Oneonta and New Paltz was really exciting.”

Synan said she has thoroughly enjoyed her time on the team.

 “I love the team,” Synan said. “When I came here as a recruit, I was like, ‘wow the team is really fun,’ and so, I wanted to come here and join. And I feel like every year, we’ve just got more and more people that fit into the team vibe, and this year, … this was one of the best groups of people and I feel like we worked really well together as a team.” 

Synan will graduate in the spring and has definitely left her mark as a Laker.

Sophomore swimmer and diver Ryan Kreuser is happy but not satisfied, as he wants to see the team improve upon what they did this season.

 “I want to see a good record as we did this year and try to get first again at Hamilton and do better than we did this year at SUNYACs,” Kreuser said. “Break some more records, and … I think something we could go for is try to get to nationals.” 

It has been an overall fantastic season from the Lakers.

Photo by Ben Grieco | The Oswegonian