The BU men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are both hoping to earn their first-ever Patriot League title this week. Photo by Rob Branning

Varsity Sports

Terriers Diving into Patriot League Championships

BU swimming and diving season climaxes this week in Maryland

In the pool, months of training are often defined by mere seconds. That will be especially true this week when the BU swimming and diving teams compete in the 2022 Patriot League Championships at the US Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Md. The competition begins today, February 16, and concludes Saturday, February 19.

“They’re swimming fast for each other,” head coach Bill Smyth says of the men’s and women’s squads. “They’re swimming fast for the good of the team so that we can place as high as we can.”

BU competed in only five meets last year because of the pandemic, so Smyth says much of the 2021-22 season has been spent ramping up for the final stretch. “Come [last] September, it had been about 18 months since we had done any really high-level elite type of training,” he says. “We went pretty slowly at first and tried to give everybody a longer period of time to get their feet under them.”

The men’s team holds a 5-2 overall record, while the women’s team is 4-4, but regular season wins and losses mean little when it comes to the championship, and Smyth hopes his team is peaking at the right time. “Since that workload has been increased, we’ve come around,” he says. “We’re finally at a place where we’re swimming very well day to day at practices, and I feel very good at the moment.”

With a more typical schedule in place this season, team captain Andrew White (CAS’22) says the program has largely focused on getting Terrier underclassmen up to speed. “For a lot of the underclassmen, this is the first actual season they’ve had since COVID,” he says. “It’s been really fun seeing them all experience it for the first time.”

White says he’s encouraged by what he’s seen. “I think their growth has really been evident in the confidence we have in each meet,” he says. “The times are just getting better as we go along.”

Among the standouts is Justin Lee (Questrom’24), who has won the 50-meter freestyle race twice this season. “He’s really stepped up as a leader in showing everybody what needs to be done and how to get it done,” White says. “He’s definitely one of the stars of the underclassmen.”

Sezin Eligul (CAS’22) is another Terrier sprinter who has excelled this season, owning the school records in the 50 free, the 100 free, and the 100 backstroke. And Kyle Falkstrom (Sargent’23) swept the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke events over rival Boston College January 22.

As for the diving team, Emily Balicanta (Sargent’22) has been named Patriot League Diver of the Week three times in the last year and earned the win in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events on January 15 at Colgate. Now a senior, Balicanta says the team has doubled in size during the last four years.

“It’s kind of fun seeing how team dynamics have transitioned to a bigger family,” she says. “In all good ways, it’s changed.”

Going into this week’s championships, Balicanta says, “I just want to show everybody what a good sport this is and what a good team this is.”

The Patriot League swimming and diving championship meet is at the US Naval Academy’s Lejeune Hall in Annapolis, Md., February 16 through 19. Fans can follow the Terriers on Twitter and @TerrierSwimDive, and keep up with the action on @BUGameDay.