LOUDONVILLE, NY– For the 10th time under the direction of Head Coach Paul Kueterman, Siena Swimming & Diving is set to compete in the MAAC Swimming & Diving Championships. The 2020 edition of the four-day long meet will once again be held at the Burt Flickinger Center Pool on the campus of Erie Community College in Buffalo, NY, and will run from February 12-15.
Follow the Saints' all week long by clicking on the corresponding links at the top of the page. The meet will be streamed live on MAAC.TV as part of the conference's coverage of each postseason event throughout the 2019-20 season. Live stats will also be available at the links above throughout the duration of the meet. Continuous updates will be provided throughout the championship via the swim team's official Twitter page @Siena_SwimDive. Join the conversation by using the hashtags #MarchOn, #SienaSaints, and #MAACSwim.
Competing at the MAAC Championships for the 21st time, the Saints will look to build on an eighth-place performance which saw then score 219 total points last season. Six returning swimmers qualified for the MAAC Championship finals in their respective events, with current senior Carrie Bonvissuto doing so in the 500 free, senior Rachel Brown going in the 50, 100 and 200 free and senior Larissa Nanna qualifying in the 100 and 200 breaststroke. Additionally, junior Shannon Leary made the MAAC Finals in the 200 breast, classmate Sydney Lautenslager did so in the 400 IM and sophomore Isabel Harms qualified in the 200 back. The team posted a 4-8 dual meet record during the regular season, surpassing its mark from the previous campaign and logging wins over league foes Niagara, Manhattan and Saint Peter's.
The Saints used 10 competitions during the 2019-20 season to record 58 best times, with 18 of 20 swimmers turning in a personal best this season. Eight of 14 of the team's best times have been swam by one of Siena's 10 freshman, which were part of the its largest incoming class in program history. Freshman Reilly King has the team's top mark in the 500, 1000 and 1650 free, while classmate Jessica Shine has done so in the 100 and 200 fly, as well as the 200 IM. King's mark of 10:46.82 gave her the sixth-fastest time in the league in the 1000 free, while her time of 5:11.27 is good for seventh in the 500 free. Shine holds the league's fifth fastest mark in the 100 free (57.44) and is just 42 hundredths of a second off the school record in the event, set in 2011 by Siena hall of famer Brittany Pavolko.
For the first time since 2016, Siena will enter a diver into postseason competition, with freshman Lydia DeLano heading to her first-ever MAAC Championship meet. The Burnt Hills, NY native is the conference's reigning Diver of the Week, earning the award on February 5 after posting season best marks in the one-meter (236.75) and three-meter (278.0) diving events over the previous weekend.
Prior to 2019, Siena finished seventh in the meet in each of the previous two seasons, taking home fifth in the two before those. The 2020 MAAC Swimming & Diving Championships kick off Wednesday at 6 PM, with the team partaking in the 200-yard medley relay, the 800-yard free relay, one-meter diving and the MAAC All-Academic Team Awards Ceremony. Action will continue Thursday, Friday and Saturday, beginning at 10 AM each day.
