The Student News Site of Utica University

The Tangerine

The Student News Site of Utica University

The Tangerine

The Student News Site of Utica University

The Tangerine

UC swimmers fall at Naz

Nick Woodman, Staff Writer

Coming back from the sunshine state and being in tip top shape, the UC men’s and women’s swim teams prepared last week to take on the Nazareth College Golden Flyers. The team returned to Utica after a relaxing, yet tough training week down in Florida.

Sophomore Grace Gallentine, who placed first in the 50-meter freestyle race with a time of 29.89, thought the training week went well.

“Hard training is the best way to get in shape quickly, and it did the job,” she said.

With the newfound fitness of the team, the Pioneers took it to Rochester to take on the Golden Flyers.

The meet was hard-swam and was a battle with every race that went on. While Nazareth is a very strong team, Gallentine noted it was extremely important for the team to keep its composure.

“I think when swimming against a team as tough as Nazareth, the most important thing to take away is to not get discouraged,” she said. “As a team, the best we can do is stay positive and always be supportive of each other.”

The Pioneers lost to the Golden Flyers 165-84 for the men’s team and 142-96 for the women’s team.

When the water became calm and the swimmers got out of the pool, the Pioneers had something they could build on going into their next meet against St. Lawrence.

Besides Gallentine, the other woman who placed was Phoebe King, as she placed first in three different events: the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 2:23.03, the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 1:06.00 and the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 1:13.37.

Despite the loss, King was proud of her team’s performance. She talked about how the team just needs to tune up a few things such as staying positive and cheering for one another.

“When we fix up our communication skills, that will be one of our keys to success,” she said. “There isn’t really much else that needs to be fixed. We have the conditioning and now we just need to work on the little things. Those will make us all better swimmers as a whole.”

She believes the week in Florida was extremely beneficial for the squad.

“It was a team bonding experience,” she said. “We all went and worked hard through practice and then we went to the beach and hung out with each other.”

The men’s team also had a pair of swimmers who placed top two in their races. Tim Tellekamp placed first in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 2:02.49. Raphael Warnon earned himself two second place finishes. One came in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:03.89 and the second came in the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 2:19.38.

Both the men and women look to get back on track against Saint Lawrence on Saturday Jan. 30 at 1 p.m. The meet is set to take place on the road in Canton, New York.

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