ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University men's swimming & diving team began its 2023-24 campaign with a dual meet, hosting Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday afternoon from the McLane Natatorium.
 
The Saxons (0-1, 0-0 Empire 8) fell to the Tigers (2-0, 1-0 Liberty League) fell 227-73 on Saturday afternoon. "Despite the score at the end of the meet, I am pretty excited about how we performed today," Head Coach Brian Striker '00 said. "We have a lot of new student-athletes who got their first meet under their belt, some of which did a great job! Many of the upper-class swimmers and divers have set themselves up in a better place now than a year ago. RIT is a nationally-ranked program and we were able to give them some good races. We do, of course, have work to do and holes to fill, but I thought today gave us a good starting point for the mission that we are on."
 
The 200-yard medley relay team of William LaMastus (Maumee, OH/Anthony Wayne), Wade LaMastus (Maumee, OH/Anthony Wayne), Fernando Lagos (Tegucigalpa, Honduras/Escuela e Instituo Lincoln) and Emmanuel Drappatz (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel Area) got things started with a second place finishing time of 1:37.52, edging out the third place team from RIT and their time of 1:37.71.
 
Will picked up the first win of the day as he swam a 53.29 in the 100-yard backstroke.
 
Emiliano Terrazas (La Paz, Bolivia/Saint Andrew's) took third in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:02.27. Drappatz took second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.99. He would then turn around and take second in the 100-yard freestyle, clocking a 48.71, just short of the first place time of 48.36.
 
Will added another top finish as he swam a 2:02.69 in the 200-yard backstroke for second place. Following that, Terrazas picked up a win in the 200-yard breaststroke, winning by 0.16 seconds with a time of 2:16.81, beating out the RIT swimmer's time of 2:16.97.
 
To close out the day, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Paul Tuttle (Irondequoit, NY/Irondequoit), Alessandro Lagos Canales (Tegucigalpa, Honduras/Escuela e Instituo Lincoln), Will and Drappatz finished second with a time of 1:29.57.
 
The Saxons will next host University of Pittsburgh at Bradford on Friday, October 27 at 6:00pm.