Women’s swimming and diving opens season with a loss to UVM

By Nastassja Posso

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. – The Niagara women’s swimming and diving teams opened their 2018-19 with a loss to University of Vermont.

The Purple Eagles and the Catamounts last met on Nov. 5, 2011. Vermont defeated Niagara, 165-123.

The NU relay teams were head to head with the Vermont girls and ended with two wins.  The relay team of Tasselmyer, Kristen Suarez, Hannah Charlton and Yvonne Schere won the 200 medley relay, swimming the event in 1:51.67. The relay team of Tasselmyer, Suarez, Schere and Isabella DeSimone won the 200 free relay as well,  with a time of 1:42.15.

There were also a couple strong individual wins for the Purple Eagles. Freshman Avery Sanquist, started her first season as a purple eagle with a bang. She won the 1000 free with a time of 10:45.15 and placed second in the 500 free with a time of 5:19.46.

Sophomore Hayley Tasselmyer also had some great swims, with a win in both of her individual events and a personal best record in one of them. Her 100 breast was a 1:08.87 and she went a time of 2:31.43 in her 200 breast.

Hannah Charlton placed first in the 100 fly with a time of 1:00.34, and second in the 200 fly with a 2:16.08.

Coach Ben Nigro is very happy with the overall result of the meet although his teams took a loss to UVM. He also mentions that the individual wins and relay wins exceeded his expectations.

“Today we had four swims that were in our all-time top 10 in the university,” he said. “I thought we looked great for first meet of the season, team dynamic was amazing with all the support they showed for each other.”

Coach Josh Lacrom thinks his divers did a good job as well, he definitely sees areas for improvement but he is happy with the changes they have made through his training.

“I think for them, this meet was a very mental meet; they were in their heads a lot the last couple of days so to see them persevere and push through was great to see,” Lacrom said. “Very excited to see how the next few weeks go.”

This week the men and women’s teams will prepare for two consecutive meets throughout the weekend. On Friday Oct. 5, both teams will have their first away meet at SUNY Fredonia. Last season Niagara University men and women’s teams had a strong win over Fredonia. For women the score was 121 to 70. On the men’s side Niagara beat Fredonia with a score of 120 to 100. On Saturday the teams will compete against their purple eagle alumni.