LOUDONVILLE, NY – Following a year in which its dual meet season was postponed and conference championship cancelled, Siena Swimming and Diving's wait to return to the pool is all but finished. The Saints are set to take the pool for regular season action for the first time in 615 days against Binghamton and MAAC foe Niagara on Saturday, October 9 at the Patricia A. Saunders Aquatic Center in Vestal, New York at 1 PM.
The Saints will enter their first of nine scheduled regular season events under the direction of second year head coach
Brogan Barr, who will lead the team into her first official meet at the helm of the program. The team also includes 12 swimmers who have never swan in a regular season event in the Green and Gold, with five coming in as freshman and five as sophomores who did not race last year.
Picked to finish eighth in the recently released 2021-22 MAAC Preseason Coaches Poll, Siena finished eighth at the most recent MAAC Championship in 2020, with school records in the 100 fly and 800 free relay being set at that event. The Saints will swim four MAAC foes in regular season action, including the Purple Eagles on Saturday, Canisius on October 23, and both Manhattan and Monmouth on November 12. A pair of home meets are also on the schedule this fall, with the team playing host to Assumption at the Siena Swim Center on Saturday, October 16 and to New Hampshire for Senior Day on November 6.
Entering the program's 23
rd season, there are currently eight of the team's 11 returning swimmers who swam two years ago are responsible for 18 total entries on the team's All-Time Top-10 Performers List. Junior
Jessica Shine already owns the school record for the 100 fly, while Shine and classmates
Reilly King and
Lauren Ostrander were a part of the team's 800 free relay record squad in 2020. Shine is also second all-time in the 200 free and the 200 fly and third in the 200 IM. Junior
Rory Kalac is third all-time in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free, while King is fourth in the 500 and 1650 free events and fifth in the 200 free.
The Saints are re-visiting what had been an annual tri-meet against the Bearcats and the Purple Eagles to begin the year, with Siena 14-8 all-time over Niagara and 1-6 against Binghamton. Siena has fallen in each of its last six dual meets against Binghamton, and defeated Niagara, 157.5 – 132.5, in the pair's last meeting on October 19, 2019. Siena owned a 3-1 record among conference opponents in dual meets during the 2019-20 season.
Be sure to follow @Siena_SwimDive on Twitter and visit SienaSaints.com for the most up-to-date information on Saturday's season-opener.
