ALFRED, NY -- The Alfred University men's swimming & diving team took home a big Empire 8 win over SUNY Brockport, edging ahead 149-145 on Saturday afternoon.

"We performed much better today, it was a good win that came down to the relay," Head Coach Brian Striker said. "We had quite a few great swims across the board - a solid amount of in-season bests, and I think all better than last week. The team is working to build on our foundation - striving to make ourselves better in some way each and every day. There was a noticeable difference from my perspective; I am excited to get them back to work!"

The Saxons (1-1, 1-0 Empire 8) took home 10 individual wins across the board to get ahead of the Golden Eagles. They started it with a win in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:37.26, made up of a team of Rihards Kagis (Kekava, Latvia/British School Muscat), Mahmoud Elkady (Cairo, Egypt/Smart City), Carlos Gonzalez (Baja California, Mexico/Unifront), and Calem Striker (Hornell, NY/Hornell). 

Gonzalez went on to win three more races on the afternoon, in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:25.33), 500-free (5:02.72), and 100-IM (54.22). Kagis won two more races in the 50-backstroke (25.01) and 100-backstroke (54.07) and was second in the 100-fly (55.30).

Elkady clinched two more victories for AU in the 50-breast at 26.93 and the 100-breast at 1:00.89. Finally, Striker got a couple more points on the board with wins in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle with respective times of 22.15 and 48.77, and a second place in the 50-fly clocking in at 24.98.

Other promising results came in the 1000-yard freestyle with a third place time of 10:59.49 from Alex Vail (Lake Oswego, OR/Lakeridge), and a second place in the 200-free from Uros Stojic (Niš, Serbia/Prva niška gimnazija Stevan Sremac) at 1:48.88. Both also wrapped up respective times of 5:09.16 and 5:10.32 in the 500-free to claim the top three spots behind Gonzalez.

In the diving well, Jaxson McQuaid (Norwalk, CT/Norwalk) got second place finishes in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives with scores of 234.45 and 210.30, respectively. One final relay in the 200-free was enough for AU to score enough points over Brockport, behind a time of 1:31.39 and a seocnd place finish with a relay squad of Vail, Stojic, Emmanuel Drappatz (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel Area) and Sean Killian (Kenmore, NY/St. Joseph's Collegiate Institution).

AU will continue action on Friday, October 30 by hosting Hobart College at 4:00 p.m.