Hindered by the affects of sickness, tired by a month of grueling practice, the Syracuse swimming and diving team limped into its match Saturday against Seton Hall.

The team left with a victory and a defeat. The women won, 152-130; the men lost, 151-130.

It was Syracuse’s first dual meet coming off winter break, a time head coach Lou Walker said was crucial to see how the team would respond to the tough physical training. Combined with that, much of the team was battling what Walker described as a stomach virus, along with some other ailments, throughout the week.

Senior Catrina Roth is no stranger to illness affecting her performance in an important swim meet. Last year, before this same meet, she battled bronchitis. This season at Gamecock Invite, she suffered from the stomach flu while she was ‘having the meet of her life.’ And she just recently recovered from another bout of bronchitis.

Still, she won all four the events she participated in, the 100- and 200-yard backstroke, the 200-yard individual medley, and the women’s team 400-yard medley relay.

‘(The sickness) was kind of lingering in the back of my head,’ Roth said. ‘But I’m really happy with my times today, and I think we as a team did really awesome, considering the circumstances.’

Walker said he was beyond satisfied with his team. He said the circumstances made him even more pleased with the win.

‘A bunch of us were struggling with whatever was going around,’ Walker said. ‘So I’m very pleased with our team’s efforts.’

The team is also in the midst of a tough training schedule. After coming back from a physically demanding semester break training schedule, it was a challenge to get back into the rhythm of normal training, Walker said. In the next few weeks, the team will start ‘tapering down’ and resting for the Big East Championship meet, Walker said, which makes it even trickier.

‘The transitions in the training are big transitions to make,’ Walker said. ‘So you’re really excited and looking forward to how the team responds.’

Roth and sophomore Natalie Mazzetta led the way on the women’s side, each winning three individual events and one relay.

‘I was really impressed with Catrina and Natalie,’ Walker said. ‘They swam great, just as they have been all season.’

Roth was pleased with all her wins, but singled out the 200-yard individual medley as her best accomplishment for the day.

‘It’s not really one of my better events and I don’t have the confidence in it like I do with backstroke,’ Roth said. ‘I definitely have to get up and go harder on it, so it’s rewarding to come out on top.’

Senior Sarah Manning also came through with two wins, including one in the 500-yard freestyle, in which she came from behind in the last 25 yards to win by .17 seconds. She also swam the 1000-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle back-to-back, placing third and first, respectively.

The men’s side was a three-pronged approach. Kuba Kotynia won both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke, Boldizsar Kiss captured the 100- and 200-yard butterfly, and Alex Taraskin took three freestyle events.

‘Kuba impressed me, because actually in the 100-(yard) race the Seton Hall breaststroker’s lifetime best times are better than his,’ Walker said. ‘That was a really exciting race.’

Kotynia also said he was pleased with his results.

‘Pretty good, actually better than I expected,’ he said when asked to analyze his day. ‘My goal is to get to the top 3 in the Big East, but I think I did a very good job.’

Walker was thrilled with the complete team effort.

‘I think in terms of winning races we really dominated today,’ Walker said. ‘There were a lot of races that we didn’t come out on top but, for example, we went 2-3-4. It says a lot about the team in terms of our depth.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on January 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm