At their penultimate home meet of 2021, the Binghamton men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams completed their respective sweeps of Canisius on Saturday afternoon. The men beat the Griffs 199-89, and the women won 192-108.

“We swam well and competed well,” said Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey. “We’ve seen the men and women kind of turn a corner here and continue to get better week in and week out which is definitely our goal … Definitely happy about where we are, and I’m excited about what the next few weeks will bring.”

Upon defeating the away side, the men now post a positive overall record of 3-2. The women’s team has won three of its seven meets and has tallied two of those wins at the past two home competitions.

In the past, the men’s side was challenged in the short distance individual medley and breaststroke events by former Canisius swimmer Lucas Kennedy, who has posted multiple pool records at the Patricia A. Saunders Aquatic Center. With the former Griff having graduated last season, Kennedy’s absence freed up some points for Binghamton to grab.

“[Canisius] has really got some strong swimmers,” Cummiskey said. “They won a bunch of events and had some fast swims. I think that’s where our depth really shines. Pretty much across the board, we’ve got three or more swimmers in each event and divers that can compete on every given day and go out and win. It’s a testament to the depth of our team and our ability to be more well rounded.”

The 100-yard breaststroke was won by senior Ryan Board with a time of 57.76, and the 200-yard breaststroke was taken by sophomore Lewis Lin in 2:08.43. Board also won the 200-yard IM after clocking in at 1:59.73.

Even with Board grabbing 18 individual points for the Bearcats, he didn’t come out of Saturday’s meet as BU’s top scorer for the men. That honor went to freshman Elijah Lanfear, who won the 50-yard freestyle (21.41), the 100-yard freestyle (46.96) and the 100-yard butterfly (49.98), tallying 27 individual points along with an additional 11 as part of the winning 200-yard medley relay team.

The other freshman on the men’s side, Keegan Chatham, won the 100-yard backstroke in 52.28 and 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:54.94. He combined with Lanfear to collectively tally 45 individual points, almost a quarter of the team’s overall score.

“[Chatham and Lanfear] have come in, won a bunch of events and made an immediate impact,” Cummiskey said. “They’re gonna be a huge part of us moving forward this year and for years to come.”

The women’s side was also quick to put a gap between itself and Canisius, winning the first relay event and subsequently taking first in the 1000-yard freestyle thanks to sophomore Marley Zimmerman’s time of 10:40.19 to land a gold medal position. Zimmerman also won the 500-yard freestyle later on at the meet, clocking in at 5:11.37 to tally another nine points for BU.

Although the Bearcats missed opportunities after losing a few events, the points were immediately brought back by freshman Lauren Kuzma and sophomore Courtney Moane. Kuzma took gold in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.31) and 100-yard butterfly (1:00.28), while Moane was victorious in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:24.18) and 200-yard IM (2:13.83).

“A lot of girls are putting up a lot of fast times in dual meets, and it gets really exciting when we get into resting and preparing for our invite,” Moane said.

To put the win completely out of reach for the Griffs, seniors Chris Egan and Amanda McGraw swept both the one-meter and three-meter diving events for the Binghamton men and women, respectively. McGraw finished with 260.10 in the one-meter and 267.83 in the three-meter, while Egan scored 306.83 and 287.70, respectively. Both tallied another 18 points apiece for their side.

BU’s final home meet of the year is slated to come next weekend against Iona and is scheduled to be followed by the three-day Rhode Island Invitational to end off the 2021 portion of Binghamton’s season.

“We try to do our best to get up, compete and train at a high level all fall and know we have that in the bank come the spring,” Cummiskey said.

The Bearcats are scheduled to face Iona on Saturday, Nov. 13. The meet is set to start at 11 a.m. at the Patricia A. Saunders Aquatic Center in Vestal, New York.