WEBSTER, NY – The Alfred University men's swimming & diving team completed its first day of the four-day championship meet, the 2024 Allegheny Empire Swimming & Diving Championships, held at Webster Aquatic Center on Wednesday evening.
The Saxons are in third place overall with 158 points, behind A-State and are second behind Hartwick by five points within the Empire 8.
AU's first event in the pool resulted in its first four Saxons earning All-Empire 8 First Team. William LaMastus (Maumee, OH/Anthony Wayne), Wade LaMastus (Maumee, OH/Anthony Wayne), Fernando Lagos (Tegucigalpa, Honduras/Escuela e Instituo Lincoln) and Colby Watkins (New Orleans, LA/St. Martin's Episcopal) finished second overall in the 200-yard medley relay behind Penn State Behrend. The time of 1:33.92 was almost two full seconds ahead of the Empire 8 opponents which earned AU the Empire 8's first event win of the week.
The Saxons' B-Team in the 200-medley relay won their heat with a time of 1:37.60 which was faster than the A-teams from Nazareth College and University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. The team of Keagen Winkky (Horseheads, NY Horseheads), Emiliano Terrazas (La Paz, Bolivia/Saint Andrew's), Alessandro Lagos Canales (Tegucigalpa, Honduras/Escuela e Instituo Lincoln) and Paul Tuttle (Irondequoit, NY/Irondequoit) earned the Saxons another 22 overall points to go with the A-team's 42 points.
Ryan Way (Columbus, OH St. Charles Preparatory) finished 4th and 2nd in Empire 8 in the 3-meter diving to gain 19 points for the Saxons. This also earned him an All-Empire 8 Second Team honor.
The Saxons ended their night with a sixth place in the 800-yard freestyle relay. The team was Fernando Lagos, Wade, Will and Nathan Sponenberg (Bloomsburg, PA/Central Columbia) and they combined for a time of 7:14.07 for 34 points. The B-team of Phillip Volaski (Poughquag, NY/Arlington), Giuseppe Piede (Dunellen, NJ/St. Peter's Prep), Winkky, and Alessandro Lagos finished fourth among B teams with a time of 7:27.23, to earn another 14 points.
AU will compete in time trials to start individual pool events tomorrow morning at 10:00am with finals slated to start later in the evening at 5:00pm.
