Dec. 4, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. - After strong showings at the Terrier Invitational two weeks ago, the UMass men's and women's swimming and diving teams will be back in action on the road this weekend, as the men travel to Yale and the women head to Northeastern on Saturday. Both the Minutemen and Minutewomen had third-place finishes at the Terrier Invitational in Boston Nov. 20-22, and will look to improve upon their 3-1 records in dual-meets so far this season. The women will take on the Huskies of Northeastern in Boston, Mass. in the afternoon starting at 12 p.m., while the men will faceoff with the Bulldogs of Yale in a night meet starting at 7 p.m.

Record Breakers
The Minutewomen had some outstanding performances at the Terrier Invitational, including school records being broken by Chelsea Downing and Amina Meho.

Downing broke two UMass school records on her way to being named Atlantic-10 Performer of the Week. The sophomore shattered two longstanding UMass records in the 500 freestyle and 1650 freestyle. The Falmouth, Mass native swam a time of 4:58.58 in the 500, breaking the previous record of 5:01.17 that was set back in 1995. She broke another 14-year old record later in the weekend, swimming a 17:10.78 in the 1650, breaking the old record by almost two seconds. Downing also sandwiched in a fifth-place finish in the 400 IM, finishing with a time of 4:31.59.

Meho played a major role in the Minutewomen third-place finish, helping the team score in six different events as she earned Atlantic-10 Rookie of the Week honors. The freshman started the weekend by breaking the UMass school record in the 50 freestyle with a blistering time of 23.55 to take sixth-place in the event. Meho then put a close to the weekend in the 100 freestyle, finishing fourth with a time of 51.76. The Burlington, Mass native was an integral part of four different relay teams, swimming the anchor leg in every relay during the weekend. Meho helped the 200 free, 800 free and 400 medley teams to third-place finishes, while assisting the 200 medley to fourth.

Three-Straight
The Minutewomen have won three-straight dual meets entering Saturday's meet with Northeastern. The women have grabbed wins against Army (166.5-127.5), Stony Brook (180-115) and Binghamton (182-117). The squad fell to Northeastern last year, falling 161.5-138.5

Minutemen Take Third
The Minutemen are coming off a third-place finish at the Terrier Invitational, as they get ready to take on one of the best programs in the northeast in Yale. The two teams did not compete against each other in a dual-meet last year.

The men were helped to a third-place by some strong performances in relay events, taking six top-five finishes in the four relay events. Chris Howard, Trevor Ziegler, Sasan Tehrani and Juan Moliere started the weekend with a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay, swimming a season-best time of 1:23.07. Jorge Fortin, Brian Schmidt, Mike Berthaume and Moliere notched a third-place finish in the 400 medley with a time of 3:25.13. Moliere continued to show his talent at anchoring relays in the 200 medley, helping the team of Fortin, Schmidt and Berthaume to a second-place finish with a time of 1:33.24.

Individually, sophomore Joey Sbordon continued his tremendous season, notching three top-five finishes on the weekend. Sbordon swam a personal best time of 4:31.63, which was also the third fastest time in UMass history, in the 500 freestyle to finish second to start the weekend. The Franklin, Mass. native then took the first win of the weekend for the Minutemen, finishing first in the 200 freestyle with a season-best time of 1:40.93. Sbordon concluded the weekend with a 15:54.34 in the 1650 freestyle to finish third.

Diving
The UMass men's and women's swimming and diving teams performed very well at the Harvard Invitational last weekend, achieving four top-five finishes overall. Jason Cook highlighted the day for the men, notching two first-place finishes in both the one-meter and three-meter events.

Cook registered a score of 343.45 in the final round of the one-meter dive, finishing with a score of 639.55. John Clark, Adam Duffield and Conor Dunn also had solid performances, finishing fifth, sixth and seventh respectively as the Minutemen registered the most top-eight finishes.

Cook and Duffield also had a one-two finish in the three-meter event, as Cook ended with a score of 740.15 while Duffield notched a score of 621.05. Conor Dunn rounded out the scoring for the men, finishing eighth with a score of 495.20.

On the women's side, sophomore Hannah Swift led the way with a fifth-place finish in the one-meter dive. Swift registered a score of 237.75 in the preliminary round, followed by a final round score of 236.85 to give her a total of 474.60.

Both diving teams will travel with the respective swim teams to Yale and Northeastern.

The Opponents
The Northeastern Huskies women's swim team finished fifth at the Terrier Invitational, two spots behind the Minutewomen with 392.5 points. The squad is currently 1-0 in dual meets, beating Boston College 162.5-137.5 on Oct. 30.

The Yale Bulldogs men's swim team is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Terrier Invitational, amassing 731.5 points to finish just 10 points behind the Minutemen. The team knocked-off Southern Connecticut, 178-120, in their last dual-meet on Nov. 23 and currently stand 1-1 in dual-meets on the year.