Bridgeport Holds Annual Pentathlon

The UB Purple Knights Women’s & Men’s Swimming Teams held their annual Pentathlon Friday, October 23 at the Wheeler Recreation Center Natatorium.  This was the 6th annual Pentathlon for the Women and the inaugural event for the Men, the UB Athletic Department’s newest team.  

Each swimmer competed in a 100-meter Butterfly, 100-meter Backstroke, 100-meter Breaststroke, 100-meter Freestyle and a 200-meter Individual Medley.  Champions were crowned in each individual event and the Pentathlon Championship went to the swimmers with the lowest cumulative time for all 5 events.  

While there were no records set in the Women’s Pentathlon, it proved to be the closest overall competition in the 6 year history of the event, with only 1.52 seconds separating the top three women in the Total Time competition.  Sophomore Sandra Schmitz (Breuhl, Germany) captured the event with a Total Time of 7:27.89, with fellow sophomores Maris Visse (Tallinn, Estonia) finishing second in 7:28.07 and Anna Kwiatkowska (Warsaw, Poland) taking third in 7:29.51.  

On the Men’s side, sophomore Piotr Safronczyk (Bialystok, Poland) ran away with the competition, winning every individual event while establishing Pentathlon Records in the process.  Safronczyk’s Total Time of 6:15.09 was over 40 seconds ahead of his closest competitors; however the race for second/third was hotly contested with only .32 seconds difference between second place finisher Freshman Toni Valcic (Ribnica, Slovenia) with a 6:56.27 and Freshman Julio Lopez (Monterrey, Mexico) finishing in third with a 6:56.59.

Pentathlon Event Winners

100-meter Butterfly – Women – A. Kwiatkowska (1:08.21); Men – P. Safronczyk (57.98)

100-meter Backstroke – Women – S. Schmitz (1:09.98); Men – P. Safronczyk (1:03.38)

100-meter Breaststroke – Women – A. Gorlanova (1:21.41); Men – P. Safronczyk (1:06.35)

100-meter Freestyle – Women – S. Schmitz (1:02.82); Men – P. Safronczyk (53.05)

200-meter Individual Medley – Women – A. Kwiatkowska (2:34.28); Men – P. Safronczyk (2:14.33)

 
The UB Purple Knight Swimming Teams will have their first official competition of the 2009-10 season when they travel to Queens College for Women’s & Men’s dual meets on Friday, October 30 at 2:00pm.