For the Syracuse swimming and diving team, the stars are beginning to emerge as its first half of the season closes.

The men’s and women’s swimming teams competed in the Yale Nutmeg Invitational during the weekend. The unscored event was marked by decisive wins from SU’s fastest swimmers as the team competed against mostly weak competition.

For the men, its five wins came from two sources: Luk Boral and Alex Taraskin. Boral won both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard individual medley, all by decisive margins. Taraskin continued his dominance in the distance events, winning the 200, 500, and 1650-yard freestyle events.

Boral and Taraskin have emerged through the first half of the season as the biggest contributors on both the swimming and diving teams. Their respective specialties have allowed them to shine equally in different events. Boral has done well in the breaststroke events this season with three wins. He is a two-time Big East Champion in the 200-yard breaststroke. Taraskin, a freshman, has emerged as the team’s forefront distance swimmer, racking up 10 wins thus far, more than any other swimmer.

‘You’ve got two outstanding swimmers,’ SU head coach Lou Walker said of Boral and Taraskin. He also pointed out that while they have racked up the most wins, he still wants to recognize that you don’t have to win an event to contribute in swimming.

For the women, both of the individual event wins were picked up by Catrina Roth. Roth, who had recorded only one win on the year before the weekend, won both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke. Her 100-yard backstroke time of 58.02 set a new meet record.

‘She did a tremendous job,’ Walker said. ‘I think she had an outstanding weekend.’

The women’s team also picked up wins in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the 200-yard medley relay, and the 400-yard freestyle relay. The wins marked the only relays for the women’s team. The men’s team also picked up a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

While the swimmers competed in Connecticut, the diving team was in New Jersey at the Rutgers Diving Invitational. Alida DiPlacido stole the show, winning both the one-meter and three-meter events by a combined 90 points. Her three-meter score in the preliminaries of 333.80 was her best of the year. She won the final round with a score of 317.90.

For the swimmers, the meet came at a curious time, as the team is two weeks removed from the Nike Cup. As Walker explains, the focus of the fall half of the swimming season is the Nike Cup, and his swimmers are trained to perform their best at that meet. This meet, the last of the fall half of the schedule, served to give his athletes exposure to multi-day meets that have championship formats.

‘What you’re trying to do is have competitions that allow you to replicate, periodically through the season, the championship experience,’ Walker said.

Published on December 5, 2006 at 12:00 pm