Rowan’s Men’s Swimming suffered its second loss of the season to Salisbury University on Saturday, Nov. 11, with a final score of 144-118, dropping them to 1-2.
After this loss, the Profs are being outscored 428.5 – 355.5 in the first three meets of the season. With that being said, the swimmers still are keeping a high morale as they prepare for the some meets that are still to come.
“It doesn’t feel great,” swimmer Michael Fracchiolla said. “We got to roll with the punches. Life’s hard, we’ll beat them at METs (Metropolitan Conference Championships) or NJACs (New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships) and that’s what matters.”
Fracchiolla shined in the meet, as he led the team to wins in four different categories; including the 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter breaststroke, 200-meter individual medley (IM), and the 100-meter relay that also included Jack Watson, Paul Riter, and Henry Lynch. Due to these performances, he helped provide the Profs with 38 of the team’s 118 total points.
“The score would have definitely been a lot different if he [Fracchiolla] wasn’t a key contributor,” Head Coach Brad Bowser said. “He wasn’t originally supposed to be in the 200 IM… After the first break, it was even, I made some adjustments to the lineup and he was one of those adjustments.”
Reflecting on the losses, Bowser reiterated that the NYU loss was one that he saw coming, not because of the Profs being incapable of stealing the win, but because of how the Violets structured their team.
“NYU, we knew we were gonna lose. It wasn’t a fun meet,” Bowser said. “Going there, you’re five levels below sea level and you’re swimming in what’s pretty close to a dungeon and you’re swimming with a team that’s got a lot of international kids that only go for one year because at the end of the day, they can’t make the grades at NYU, which is sort of how he’s able to keep his team going…”
However, regarding the Salisbury loss, Bowser believes that it was self-inflicted.
“We did not swim to our level and our capabilities,” Bowser said.
Moving forward, he feels like the team’s confidence is something that needs to improve going forward. He wants to turn these negatives into positives.
After the team was back on campus, they all came together and had a conversation that allowed them to work out some things and allowed the younger swimmers to hear what they needed to hear.
“They need to understand what it means to be a Rowan Prof swimmer and what it means to be a part of a program with such a high tradition of success,” Bowser said. “Going into this weekend, looking at the whole thing, trying to create confidence in these guys and bring the positivity back come Monday.”
The Profs’ next challenge is the Franklin and Marshall Invitational, where they will actively be attempting to level the ship of their rocky start to the season. The meet starts on Thursday, Nov, 16. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and runs all the way throughout the weekend.
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