Drue Sokol, Photo Editor
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving squads carried the tremendous momentum ignited at the end of last year into their 2012 season over the weekend, putting up a solid fight against the visiting Ithaca Bombers. A perennial powerhouse whose name consistently appears among the nation’s best teams, the Bombers met a worthy foe in the No. 21-ranked UR men and No. 20-ranked women.
Despite their national reputation and a strong freshmen class, the Yellowjackets’ men couldn’t answer a more seasoned Ithaca squad and fell 190-110. Freshman Brian Wong carried the yellow and blue, contributing two of his team’s four individual victories in the 100 fly (51.78 seconds) and the 200 fly (1:56.76). Wong polished off a career day with a time of 2:02.54 for the 200 individual medley, finishing in second place.
Freshmen Dan Napolitano and James Frauen took shots at the Bombers as well, each claiming a win for the home team. Napolitano took first in the 200 freestyle (1:45.55) while Frauen picked up his victory in the 100 backstroke (55.02).
The 200 medley relay — composed of freshmen Russell Rosenkranz, Pat Davis, Wong and Booky Porpakhham — almost tallied a fifth win for the Yellowjackets, but the Bombers’ final leg managed to steal the show by besting his UR opponent by three one-hundredths of a second.
The women’s matchup was much closer than the men’s — the day ended, in fact, in a rare tie, as the women more than proved their ranking in a thrilling 150-150 shootout with the 17-ranked Bombers.
With six individual wins and a sweep of the relays, the Yellowjackets pushed their visitors to the brink. Like her classmate Wong on the men’s team, freshman Lauren Bailey captured half of her team’s first place finishes to do some serious damage. Bailey claimed first in the 50 free (25.31), the 100 free (54.63) and the 100 fly (1:00.02).
Freshman Emily Friedline nabbed a large portion of the points for the home team as well, posting the fastest time in both the 1000 free (10:54.28) and the 200 IM (2:15.99). Freshman Teresa Xu rounded out the individual wins for UR with her victory in the 500 free (5:19.24) while adding a second place in the 200 free (1:59.94) and a third in the 200 back (2:16.03).
Bailey later teamed with sophomore Karen Meess and freshmen Meg Waring and Ellie Ansani to win the 200 medley relay. Meess and Waring also swam on the winning 400 free relay, combining with Friedline and Xu to post the final win for the ’Jackets on the day.
