For Immediate Release: January 22, 2008
Contact: Anthony G. Naglieri (sports@binghamton.edu)
Phone: 607-777-2956

Bearcats Sweep Men's AE Weekly Swimming & Diving Awards

VESTAL, N.Y. -- The Binghamton men's swimming and diving team garnered a pair of weekly awards from the America East Conference.

Junior Brenno Varanda (St. Petersburg, Fla.) was named the conference's Swimmer of the Week while junior Ryan Graham (Vestal, N.Y.) repeated as the league's Diver of the Week.

Varanda led the men's squad to three dual meet victories over Stony Brook and Lafayette on Wednesday and St. Bonaventure on Saturday.

The junior picked up a pair of individual wins against visiting Bonnies on Saturday. He won the 200-IM in 1:55.09 and the 200-breast in a pool-record 2:06.81. His time topped former Bearcat Chris McGuire's 2:07.21 performance in 2002.

On Wednesday, he led a 1-2 BU finish in the 100-breast in 58.96 and capped off his day with a win in the 200-IM in 1:55.25. Varanda finished the week a perfect 4-for-4 in individual events and swam on a pair of winning relay efforts as the Bearcats recorded their sixth consecutive dual meet wins. He now has a team-high 21 individual wins on the season

Graham swept both diving events setting a school-record in the 3-meter dive (348.00) in the Bearcats' sixth consecutive dual meet win on Saturday over visiting St. Bonaventure.

In Wednesday's tri-meet versus Stony Brook and Lafayette, the third-year diver broke former diver Jeff Cohen's 11-year old school record of 306.20 set in 1996 with a score of 322.10.

Graham has now surpassed the NCAA Zones qualifying scores on both the 1-meter (290) and 3-meter boards (310) and secured a spot in the NCAA Zone 'A' Championships on March 14-16 at the University at Buffalo.

The Bearcats will to return to action on Saturday, Jan. 26 when they host Colgate in the final dual meet of the season.