Cortland Swimming and Diving season has officially begun as they just completed their first dual meet of the season last Saturday, October 26th against Rochester.
Unfortunately, while the Cortland swim team came out with a loss, they had some honorable performances across the men’s and women’s side of the team.
Senior, Dylan Anselment, won the 50-yard freestyle with an outstanding time of 21.64 seconds with Sophomore, Jack Clark coming in close second with a time of 22.02.
Anselment showed off his talents in sprinting again in the 200 free relay. Along with his other relay members, Jack Clark, Mason Rowlands and Hunter Sugrue-Nuenendorf the powerhouse of relay team placed first in the 200-yard freestyle relay just out touching the Rochester relay.
Anselment has clearly started off his senior season strong, “I had high hopes for performing well. Throughout the last few weeks I felt like my stroke was really coming along and it felt powerful and led me to believe I would fine success in the first meet.” Anselment confidently says, “I will say I surprised myself a little with those times… Overall, I am happy with the first performance of the year in a meet setting. Despite that, there is still a lot of different things to work on throughout the season that will hopefully lead to more success and faster times.” Anselment says with hope.
Junior, Kellen Dickman was victorious in the 100-fly placing first with a impressive time of 52.62.
Even more outstanding work on the diving end especially by diver, Kevin Kohlhoff, who won 1-meter diving with a score of 294.60 giving him his first NCAA regional qualifying mark of the season.
For the women there was some exciting competition between teammates in the distance events between Senior, Leah Bernhardt and Freshmen, Ryann Redmond that made the Cortland Swim team roar with excitement.
Bernhardt, placed first in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 11:19.52 with Redmond coming in with a remarkably close second with a time of 11:20.02.
The competition between the two came alive again with an even closer race in the 500-yard freestyle, with Redmond placing 2nd with a time of 5:30.90 and Bernhardt coming in just one tenth of a second later placing third with a time of 5:30.91.
The competition could be a good thing, however, for a new freshman on the team who is just starting her college swimming career. “Having a teammate as close competition definitely helps me race my hardest at meets and. it is great to have someone to train my hardest with at practice.” Redmond states, “It makes me want to push myself even more to be able to beat them. Having this healthy competition always makes races much more exciting, especially for everyone watching!” Redmond enthusiastically says.
While the team was upset with a loss at their first meet, Rochester is a division 2 school and not a team in their conference, so Cortland moves forward as they keep their heads up and hopes held high.
Cortland hosts Alfred State in dual meet this Saturday, November 2nd at 1 p.m.