When the Syracuse swimming and diving teams took to the pool Saturday morning against Colgate, they were pretty sure that if they swam the way they practiced, both the men’s and women’s teams would earn victories.

What Syracuse didn’t anticipate was that its efforts would not only generate overwhelming wins, but also yield nine SU swimmers qualifications for the Big East Championship meet.

In their first home meet of the year, the Orangemen defeated Colgate, 144-96. The Orangewomen also won easily, 140-100, at Webster Pool.

But it was Jen Jonusaitis’ pool record in the 100-yard breaststroke that capped off an already strong day.

Jonusaitis, SU’s only senior, swam a 1:06.80, breaking the Webster Pool record set in 1993. She also swam in the 200-yard medley relay, which took second place to the Orangewomen’s other relay team headed by juniors Kalei Mahi and Elyse McDonough.

‘Jen swam the breaststroke leg of the first relay and had a terrific split,” Syracuse coach Lou Walker said, “so we said, ‘Lets build on that and have a great 100 today.’ “

Syracuse attributed its dominating performance to rigorous workouts.

‘It’s been a hard week,’ sophomore Josh Scott said. “We started hard and picked up right where we left off last week.’

Scott was one of the Big East Championship qualifiers. Joining Scott on Feb. 20 will be Jonusaitis, McDonough, Mahi, Mike Anstrom, Kathryn Gold, Devon Ackroyd, Rachel Wrede and Gustavo Kertzscher.

‘The performance was terrific,’ Walker said. ‘Our goal from last week to this week was to be more aggressive, and we did that. I’m very pleased.’

“The sky’s the limit,’ Anstrom said.

Anstrom started training early this summer by lifting weights. Now he has focused on the upcoming Nike Cup in North Carolina and the other Big East meets. There he wants to improve on his time and possibly qualify for the NCAA Championships.

SU improved from last week — improvement not just confined to the 21 freshmen.

‘Pat Mugavin didn’t break 10 minutes in the 1,000 (freestyle) last week. He swam 9:52 today,” Walker said. “Rachel Wrede was under a minute today (100 backstroke), she didn’t go under a minute until the last meet of the year last year.”

The men’s and women’s diving teams also turned in solid performances. Junior Ricky Rodriguez led the men’s team by winning the 3-meter competition with a score of 268.57. Freshman Dewey Schultz’s score of 266.70 placed him second.

‘Practices are a lot of fun because all the kids are competitive with each other,” diving coach Jeff Keck said. “We’ve had a different kid be first on every board. It’s really a nice group of kids.’

Published on October 20, 2002 at 12:00 pm