Just a quick note to update you on the season. With over 60 athletes on the team right now the coaching has been very busy - and not as good at 'meet recaps' as I had hoped! Needless to say, below is a great article on Tom Boniface, our senior captain. Earlier this year he was chosen as the Division III swimmer of the week by CollegeSwimming.com. The highest honor possible. Last week his 1:46.0 victory in the 200 free against Bowdoin, coupled with his 53 in the 100 fly against Colby the following day, led him to "NESCAC Swimmer of the Week" honors! The really great thing about the 100 fly is that Tom rarely swims that event - he specializes in the 100/200 free and 200 IM. Also, with 3 events remaining we had a 2 point lead over Colby when Tom stepped up. He dove in and led his fellow teammates to a 1-2-3 sweep that secured the victory for us. It was a tremendous moment in the meet - and as the head coach, I couldn't have asked for more from my captain.

This semester has been very good so far. In my five years at Bates we experienced 2 NESCAC Swimmers of the Week awards prior to this January... and now we have received that honor our past two weekends. Simply put, these are a big deal for us. Being honored in the best swimming conference in the country is something we take seriously. For years the team has seen me post NESCAC Swimmer of the Week honors won by other programs - always with extraordinarily talented individuals and times. It is great to see Bates on the bulletin board now, and they are starting to believe we are part of that elite group.

As for the whole team... well, our men beat Midd for the first time in 21 years January 8th. I have gotten a few messages from alums that were on that team. Very cool! Both teams also took down Colby last weekend in convincing fashion, which always feels good. Our meet against Bowdoin looks lopsided with them winning handily, but to be honest I am very happy with how we performed. It was our second week of school and a Friday night dual meet after a full day of classes. Bowdoin arrived Wed from their training trip to a quiet campus on break, and you could tell their focus was pinpoint by the time we arrived. We had over 70 in-season bests in a losing cause... unfortunately, Bowdoin just looked amazing. We'll see how things fair at conferences (and we clearly have our work cut out for us if we are going to catch them) but I like where we are after a meet in the middle of January - and I like the trajectory we are heading in!

That's enough for now! Take care and have a great day!

In Bates,

Coach Casares

Boniface named NESCAC Swimmer of the Week

Posted by: Andy Walter on January 23, 2012

Tom Boniface '12 claimed NESCAC Men's Swimming & Diving Performer of the Week honors on Jan. 23, 2012. (File photo)

HADLEY, Mass. — Bates senior captain Tom Boniface was named NESCAC Men’s Swimming & Diving Performer of the Week today by the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

Boniface (Youngstown, Ohio) won two events in Saturday’s home dual-meet win over Colby, touching the wall first in both the 100-yard freestyle (48.90 seconds) and the 100 butterfly (53.81). He also swam a leg in Bates’ first-place 200 free relay squad (21.8).

The previous night at Bowdoin, Boniface recorded a season-best and winning time of 1:46.03 in the 200 freestyle.

Earlier this season, Boniface was named a Division III national swimmer of the week by collegeswimming.com.

View the NESCAC Swimming & Diving weekly release.