The Canisius swimming and diving teams hosted Big-4 rival St. Bonaventure on Saturday afternoon at the Koessler Athletic Center pool and the team's split the dual meet.
The Golden Griffins men's squad fell to Bonnies by a final score of 141-99, and for the first time ever the Canisius women's squad defeated St. Bonaventure by a score of 119-115. The women's meet was the closest meet of the year for the team, as the final score came down to the final relay.
“I really thought are team did a real nice job against a really talented Bonnies squad,” said head coach Scott Vanderzell. “Our girls really stepped up from the divers all the way through to the final relay and put themselves in a position to win the meet at the end. For the guys, we had a lot of nice races but as a team we need to be a little bit stronger.”
The women's 400-yard freestyle relay, which consisted of Rebecca Anthone, Erika Tozser, Marissa Oakey and Hannah Graesser won the race with a time of 3:35.67, setting a new pool record by just over five seconds in the process. This wasn't the only relay team that broke a pool record; the women's 400-yard medley relay team won the first event on the day, setting a new pool record of 4:00.22. The medley relay team consisted of Clare Battaglia, Marissa Watroba, Alicia Wheeler and Hannah Graesser.
Not only did the two relay team's break records, but two of the Canisius divers did as well. Seniors Eddie Quarantillo and Taylor Epstein got their names on the record board after tremendous performances in the men's 1-meter and women's 3-meter. Quarantillo broke his previous school record of 316.60, with a score of 318.30 in the 1-meter and Epstein set the pool record of 245.25, .10 points better than the previous record, in the women's 3-meter.
Junior Spencer Bray and Hannah Graesser also won individual events for the Blue and Gold, as Bray won the men's 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:50.65 and the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:21.02 and Graesser won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24:53.
Up next for the Griffs Swimming and Diving teams will be a meet at the Flickinger Center, when the Blue and Gold host Colgate on Nov. 22nd.
