Oswego State men’s and women’s swimming and diving lost in its meet against Clarkson University on Nov. 6, but coach Mike Hallman is looking forward to getting back into shape after not being able to practice over the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lakers lost 97 to 147, but as a blend of individual and relay competitions, according to Hallman, winning overall is not the end-all be-all of the sport. Hallman also attributes the loss to team illness and injuries, and thinks that in perfect health, the Lakers would have had a good chance.

“I think if we were fully healthy, it would have been a much closer meet,” Holman said. “A meet that we possibly could have won, but it just wasn’t in the cards right now where we’re at, so it is what it is.” 

Hallman said it was a tough transition back into the season after not being able to practice for 21 months, with the last Laker practice in February of 2020.

“I think the obvious is that we weren’t allowed to do anything last year, and that makes a year and a half plus out of the pool for most of the kids,” Holman said. “And that is not an easy thing to do in this sport and I think we’re seeing the consequences of that.”

Other SUNY schools such as Geneseo and Cortland were allowed to practice over the shutdown, and as a practice-heavy sport, Hallman believes it to be a major contributing factor to the Lakers’ performance so far.

However, some Lakers stood out like Zach Brown, edging out the competition in the men’s 50 meter breaststroke by just under a second. In diving, Eric Dzierzgowski dominated the men’s one meter diving, scoring 173 over Clarkson’s 135.85 to bring home nine total points.

Paralympian and senior swimmer Tomas Rodriguez potentially broke the para-swimmer S9 category record for the men’s 50 yard butterfly, beating the previous record time of 40.76 seconds with his time of 34.08. The confirmation process can take up to two weeks, but Rodriguez is confident that it will be accepted. 

From the women’s dive team, Laura Bornheimer scored 157.05 and Jessica Azoulay scored 140.10, receiving nine and four points respectively. The pair brought home four and three points respectively in the one meter dive. Twyla Nastasia won nine points in the 800 meter freestyle with a final time of 10:18:51, and the relay team of Margaret Romano, Eva Potvin, Grace Parente and Alexia Lemus came in a close second in the 200 meter medley relay at 2:12.89 to Clarkson’s 2:10.44.

The tight races could be attributed to the specifics of Clarkson’s pool being measured in meters, as the Lakers are accustomed to yards, which Hallman said may seem like a miniscule difference but can change the flow a swimmer is used to.

“This is always a weird meet for us because Clarkson is a 25 meter pool and all of the other pools we swim in are 25 yard pools,” Holman said. “So a meet like that, the times don’t mean a whole lot because they’re not what we’re used to, and not that it’s a way longer distance but it does have an effect on you when you’re not accustomed to the extra strokes on each length.”

Senior swimmer Eva Potvin agrees with Hallman, saying the change from yards to meters was a problem.

“None of us really knew what a good time was because short course meters is swam so rarely that you just had to go in and try your best,” Potvin said.

However, Potvin is proud of her team and is excited for the rest of the season. She said it has been a hard adjustment coming back to the season after such a long time off, and the team has suffered a lot of illness and injury.

“Swimming is really demanding so when you take that much time off, you just can’t expect your body to do the same thing,” Potvin said. “But we need it to, to get to where we want to be by the end of the season.”

Potvin does not see the meet against Clarkson as a complete loss, as some swimmers and divers performed excellently. She also sees it as a necessary evil to get the team into high gear.

“We had a really good home meet against Oneonta, and we got a wake up call against Clarkson,” Potvin said. “We got comfortable, then we got kicked in the butt.”

Outside of the meet, Oswego State swim and dive participated in the “Hour of Power” relay on Nov. 9 in honor of the late Ted Mullin, a Carleton College swimmer who died in 2006 from sarcoma. Participants swim or exercise for one continuous hour in Mullins honor, and in the past 14 years participants across sports and organizations have raised $880,000 for cancer research. While the Lakers did not raise any funds this year, swimming the relay raises awareness about the event and honors Mullin.

Rosanne Beltran | The Oswegonian