Behind an incredible performance by sophomore breast/IM swimmer Ruan Zorgman, the Binghamton men’s swimming and diving team impressed at the ECAC Championships this weekend, hosted by the University of Pittsburgh. Despite capturing just one victory during its dual-meet season, the Bearcats (1-5) finished in fourth place out of 15 competing teams.

“I was really excited and really happy with the way the team performed,” BU head coach Brad Smith said. “The team just stepped up as a whole and … really put us into position to contend at the ECAC, which was a lot more competitive this year then it has been.”

Zorgman opened up his weekend in the preliminary rounds of the 200-meter breaststroke, swimming a time of 1:59.05, and the 100-meter breaststroke, in which he swam a time of 55.28. Both broke school records.

While it may have appeared that he was headed for a letdown in the final rounds of each event, none such occurred for the sophomore. Zorgman followed up his record-breaking performances in the prelims by breaking his own school records in the finals.

Zorgman swam a time of 1:59.02 to earn an overall victory in the 200-meter and posted a 55.25 to earn bronze in the 100-meter. He also secured a silver medal for BU in the 200-meter IM event, finishing with a time of 1:48.86. Zorgman’s times in all three events were strong enough to qualify him for the NCAA B-cut.

“I’ll be honest, that was not expected,” Smith said about Zorgman’s performance. “I expected him to be very strong in the 100 breast, 200 breast and strong in the 200 IM as well. I just didn’t anticipate him to set new school records both times he swam the 100 breast and both times he swam the 200 breast. That was surprising. He really did a great job.”

Aside from Zorgman, Binghamton received medal-winning performances from a host of other swimmers and divers. Sophomore Liam Cashin and junior Brian McKenna each turned in silver-medal winning performances. Cashin swam a time of 4:56.08 — a new school record — in the 400 IM, while McKenna finished with a time of 20.44 in the 50 free. Senior Devin Zdanowski was BU’s most successful diver, placing third in the three-meter dive with a total score of 307.85.

“I would say in some ways the team exceeded expectations and in some ways the team met expectations,” Smith said. “Our freshmen really stepped up and did well.”

Overall, Navy won the ECAC with 661.5 points, with Army placing second scoring 428.5 points. Columbia came in third with a point total of 418, followed by Binghamton with 400.

With his first season at the helm of the Bearcats now concluded, Smith views his team’s performance at the ECAC championship as a building block for the future.

“The talent we have now and the talent and depth that we are bringing in, the momentum that we gained off of this meet, the confidence that we are building, I think the team sees what they are capable of going forward and where we are going with the program,” Smith said. “This was a huge confidence booster.”