Orange Swimming and Diving Teams Back In Action This Weekend
11/30/2006 11:18:26 AM | Swimming / Diving
The Syracuse swimming and diving teams return to action ofter a two week hiatus this weekend. The Orange divers will be in Piscataway, N.J. at the Rutgers Diving Invitational, December 1-3, and the Orange swimmers will be in New Haven, Conn. at the Nutmeg Invitational, Saturday and Sunday. The Orange will be joined by Fordham, LaSalle, Massachusetts, Williams,Bridgeport, Central Connecticut State, and C.W. Post at the Nutmeg Invitational. Syracuse's last competition was at the Nike Cup in North Carolina, November 16-18.
Graduate student Alida DiPlacido (Montral, Quebec) sets out to continue her remarkable first season with the Orange at Rutgers, the site of the Diving Zone A meet in March. Already this season, DiPlacido has broken the school records in the one-meter (301.71) against Colgate and the three-meter (313.55) at the Nike Cup. Both of those scores are the best of any BIG EAST diver this season, as she is the only diver in the conference to break the 300 point mark. DiPlacido won all six of her first diving events and placed second on both boards at the Nike Cup. Junior Tory McKenna (Westford, Mass.) has earned a pair of second place finishes on the three-meter in dual meets against Colgate and Pittsburgh, as well as three third-place finishes on the one-meter. McKenna's score of 268.88 against Colgate is the fourth-highest score in the conference this year and is a career-best mark. Junior Patrick White (Poulsbro, Wash.) recorded two top-20 finishes at the Nike Cup. He has the 11th-best score on the one-meter (260.84) and 12th in the three-meter (226.50) in the BIG EAST this season.
Syracuse will compete against BIG EAST foes Pittsburgh, Villanova, Connecticut and Rutgers, as well as Yale, Rider, Princeton, Marist, Virginia, Drexel, UMass, Brown, LaSalle, Tennessee, Columbia, and The College of New Jersey at the three day event.
Last year at the Nutmeg Invitational, the Orange men and women combined to win 11 races. Sophomore Catrina Roth (Aurora, Ill.) placed second in the 100 back (59.85). Roth placed 14th in that event at the Nike Cup, recording the 11th-best BIG EAST time (58.41). Freshman Katelyn Schumacher (Irvine, Calif.) has shown of her versatility so far this year, qualifying for six events at the BIG EAST meet. She has SU's top times this year in the 50 free (25.13), 100 free (53.98), and 200 fly (2:08.12).
On the men's side, senior Luk Boral (Poznan, Poland) continues to be one of the premier swimmers in the BIG EAST and the nation. Boral placed seventh in the 100 breast (57.62) at the Nike Cup, the highest individual finish of any SU swimmer in any event. Boral has the top-three times in the 100 breast and the top-two in the 200 breast on the team this season. Freshman Alex Taraskin (Moscow, Russia) has made his mark in the freestyle. Taraskin holds the top times for SU this season in the 100 (47.36), 200 (1:42.45), 500 (4:38.27), 1,000 (9:43.54) and 1,650 (16:20.70) freestlye events. All of those times are in the top 25 in the BIG EAST this season, including fourth in the 1,650, eighth in the 1,000 and 10th in the 200.
This weekend will be the final competition for Syracuse in 2006. The Orange heads to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Invitational, January 2-10.
