Aqua Bulls Make The Pool Their Stomping Ground

If you’ve been to a UB athletics event, it’s more than likely that you have seen and heard the Men’s Swimming and Diving Team. This group of men has a ton of school spirit, and they make their presence known both in the water and on dry land. One team member discussed the team’s involvement in AFA’s and support of other teams, saying that as a “low attendance sport” they understand how helpful it can be to see other students in the crowd. They are almost always in attendance to support other teams, and beyond that, they are vocal at the events. At the Volleyball AFA, the boys wore grass skirts to honor the Hawaiian theme and then painted their chests. There was so much interest in participating that, one swimmer jokes, “we had to add a couple exclamation points at the end.” The participation in both AFA’s and community service are attributed to strong leadership. “Our captains and SAAC reps help to motivate us,” the team shared, which is so necessary when a team has the crazy schedule that Swimming and Diving does. The majority of their week day mornings are started in the icy pool water at their six a.m. practices. Later in the day, the team is back in the pool for their second practice of the day, and in between those two they have weight room sessions. Their competition season begins when they arrive for the fall semester and they compete until the MAC Competition in March. One of the athletes shared that, although they are technically “off” from March through the summer, it is “almost impossible to improve without year-long preparation.”

It’s obvious that these men have not failed to prepare year-round. Although a slow start to a meet led the Bulls to fall in the tri-team competition against both Army and Michigan State, the swimmers and divers did not adopt a defeated attitude. Instead, they came in strong at their meet against McMaster’s University, winning almost every event. The positive, confident, competitive attitude that each team member exhibited that day gives hope to all the men on the roster. They are already looking forward to MACs in the spring, with their sights set on Missouri State, who won the Conference last year. Their most recent meet in Cleveland was another dominant performance, showing the potential that these athletes have to place first come March. Although a snowstorm set them back a day, the Bulls went in, again, with their champion mindset and had numerous top ten program times and meet records. Swimming and Diving requires a lot of mental and physical strength, and it can be difficult to stay focused and motivated over such a long training season. The men of UB’s Swimming and Diving team have done a phenomenal job of keeping each other optimistic and training hard, and the results are evident in the water. With such fantastic performances in the first half of their season, it’s difficult to imagine our Aqua Bulls leaving the MAC Conference Meet without lots of gold hanging from their necks.

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