The AU Swimming and Diving teams hosted an evening of rarities Saturday against Lehigh at Reeves Aquatic Center. In only the teams' second home meet of the season, the Men's side won its first dual meet in a year, 166-112, and Women's Diving performed for the first time this season but fell 173-119.
The Eagles (2-2 Patriot League) were led by Ethan Bassett, who had three first-place finishes, handing the Mountain Hawks (2-1) their first conference loss of the season. The senior broke the pool record in the 200-yard breaststroke, clocking in at 2:03.38. He also made an impressive performance of endurance in the 1,650-yard freestyle, which he swam in 15:50.90 to outpace the Lehigh runner-up by more than a minute.
For the women, senior captain Jessica Lidstrom led AU (0-4) in the loss to Lehigh (2-2) with three top finishes. She swam to a clear victory in the 200-yard freestyle and edged out wins in the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard individual medley.
Women's Diving had not competed this season due to the loss of its coach last fall, but made its debut Saturday under the lead of Casey Moore, who took over coaching duties on Jan. 1.
Senior Stephanie Fletcher placed third and senior Melissa Ferrara fourth in one-meter diving, but they were topped by the Mountain Hawks 14-5 in that event.
Junior Cami Miller matched Bassett's long-distance performance for the women in the 1650-yard freestyle, clearing the second-place Lehigh finisher by more than 16 seconds to finish in 17:31.06.
In addition to Bassett, senior Dominick Szabo earned wins in each of his three events to help the men.
AU's best finish as a team came in the 200-yard butterfly, in which sophomore Estebe Salgado, sophomore Valery Fomenko and freshman Joe Eberhard swept the top three spots.
The men also ran away with the relays. Fomenko, Szabo, freshman Stephan Brennan and sophomore Kevin Falkenstein placed first in the 400-yard medley. Bassett, Salgado, senior Erwan Jeffroy and senior Stephen Maher topped out the 200-yard freestyle.
Saturday's competition was the final time the teams will see a PL opponent until the conference championships, which will be held Feb. 26 to 28 at Navy.
The men placed third and women sixth at last year's title meet. Bassett was AU's top returning performer at that competition, where he picked up two victories.
The men's other PL win this season came on Nov. 14 against Bucknell at same meet in which it lost to conference newcomer Navy. They came close on Nov. 8 at home versus Army when they won the swimming events but lost 153-140 because they have no divers.
The women have yet to win a meet against a conference opponent this season, although their 119 points Saturday was their best performance in PL competition.
