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Rowan Men’s Swimming team suffered their third loss of the season, 207-87, on Saturday, Feb. 4, as they traveled to Kings Point, New York to face United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA).
In order for the Profs to win, they needed to fix their mistakes from the past two meets, according to sophomore Tobias Cahnbley.
“We were off, we were tired,” Cahnbley said. “The energy was not there, it affected us in the pool, but it was just a bad meet. That’s all I think it was.”
The Profs have hit a rough patch in their season, as they’ve lost back-to-back meets. It may have been a loss, but there were some Profs that stood among the rest and had an excellent day individually. Cahnbley was one of them, placing first in the 200 freestyle with 1:44.25 and the 200 backstroke with 1:53.05. Other first-place finishes included senior Robert Gagnon in the 1,000 freestyle with 10:09.15, and junior Michael Fracchiolla in the 200 breaststroke with 2:10.73 and the 200 free relay with 1:41.96.
In addition to his first-place finish in the 1,000 freestyle, Gagnon also finished third in the 500 freestyle with 4:55.41. Other Profs who placed were graduate student Kevin Yanagisawa, who finished second in the 200 fly with 1:57.46. Sophomore Justin Goglia placed second in both the 500 freestyle with 4:54.83 and 100 backstroke with 54.03.
For Gogila, swimming against USMMA was a stepping stone towards the Metropolitan Conference Championships (METs), which is in one week.
“It was a good setup for METs,” Goglia said. “We need to get our focus back into what’s really important and get our heads straight.”
It will be a tough challenge for the Profs to put their past two meets behind them, but if they do, they will be able to get back into their early season form. With that, the Profs feel as though there’s still a lot of work to be done to win next week’s Metropolitan Conference Championship.
“There’s still work to be done,” Yanagisawa said. “We still have another week until we go meet our final competition of the year.”
Rowan’s toughest challenge awaits them, as they play in the METs from Feb. 16-19 at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. The Profs are seeking their first top finish in the meet since the 2019-20 season.
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