The men's and women's swimming and diving teams kicked off its seasons today with 146–92 and 169–74 victories, respectively.

Junior Sheila Rhoades glided through the water and slammed the wall just ahead of Le Moyne College senior Kayla Ehle to win the first event, the 400 medley relay, and the Bombers never looked back.

Rhoades swam the anchor leg of the relay along with sophomores Missy Keesler and Cali DeSanto and junior Missy Keesler. The team finished with a time of 4:04.16.

"It sets a good tone for the year," Assistant Women's Swimming and Diving Coach Joelle Hopf said.

Head Women's Swimming and Diving Coach Paula Miller missed the meet because of an illness.

Miller was not the only Bomber to miss the meet, though. Senior Jen Heberton was inactive because of a back and shoulder injury.

Hopf said they are just trying to get Heberton, who took the year off from the volleyball team, back in the pool.

"I don't think she could have done both, especially with the injury," Hopf said.

Despite missing the three-year letter winner, the Bombers took first in 11 out of 13 events. Rhoades led the team with two individual wins in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. She finished with times of 24.32 and 53.12, respectively.

Junior diver Megan Stover picked up first-place finishes in both the 1- and 3-meter diving events with scores of 219.10 and 197.10 points, respectively.

The men's swimming and diving team won seven of 13 events and finished either first or second in every event.

Sophomore Antoine Connors took first in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle with times of 22.01 and 48.71, respectively.

"It's always a big deal when we win the season opener because it just gives us a great mental boost," Connors said. "It's the same thing as winning a home football game. It's great when you finish and you don't even need to hear the score because you know you won."

Connors said one of the biggest reasons for the Bombers' victory is the camaraderie the team has developed.

"In the water and out of the water, we're all really close," Connors said. "We know stuff about each other we probably shouldn't know and we don't want to know sometimes, but what that does for us is when we have people swimming, we have six people swimming per person swimming. ... You're never by yourself, that's the big thing about our team."

Freshman Martin Brown, who made his collegiate debut in the meet, won both diving events. He picked up 229.5 points in the 3-meter and 239.0 points in the 1-meter.

Sophomore Jeff Rapp said the team's depth will be a major factor throughout the season.

"We have 11 freshmen, nine of which are real fast, so that helps," he said. "We don't have those top guys anymore, there's only a few of us now. We have a couple studs left, but a ton of depth. We might not be a great duel meet team, but we're going to be a great championship meet team."

Both teams continue competition Oct. 31 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.