The men’s swimming and diving team ended its season Saturday with a loss to Union College 131–110 at the Hill Center Pool. With the loss, the Bombers fell to 11–5 despite an otherwise successful campaign.

Ithaca, who upset three-time defending state champion Alfred University last weekend, entered the meet winning seven of its past eight competitions. Head Coach Kevin Markwardt said Saturday’s meet was a bit of a reality check.

“We knew it was going to be a tough meet,” Markwardt said. “They knew they had to swim well. They put in their best effort, but we were off.”

Sophomore Jeff Rapp echoed his coach’s comments and said it’s tough for the squad to come together every single week.

“I saw a few people who were on today, I saw a few people who weren’t on today, he said. “It happens. You can only have a few meets a year where everybody hits every single best time, everybody swims really well, which we did last weekend.”

Sophomore Antoine Connors put in his best effort by winning the 50-yard freestyle in 21.87 seconds and the 100-yard freestyle in 48.37 seconds. Connors swam the opening leg of the winning 400-yard freestyle relay team composed of freshman Jake Robbins, junior Steve Croucher and freshman Chris Caldwell.

The Bombers are currently in their taper phase when they tone down their workouts in preparation for their end of season championship meets.

“This will be totally about getting our strokes together, rebuilding muscles, working on technique, the little things,” Rapp said. “The entire year, we’ve been just working on power and strength. Now it’s the time to fine tune our turns, our starts, our finishes and all the strokes.”

Rapp won the 200-yard backstroke in 1:57.62 seconds.

On the diving board, sophomore Derek Rand placed second on the 1-meter and 3-meter dives with scores of 245.90 and 263.40, respectively. Junior Norman Nguyen finished third in the 1-meter dive and said he’s ready to put this meet behind him.

“I’m sure we would’ve liked to win but at this point, it’s just really a dual meet,” Nguyen said. “We’re going to take these next two weeks and train really hard.”

Prior to the meet, the three seniors, Andrew Longcore, Matt Carolan and Gary Westerhoff, were honored for their commitment to the program.

The Blue and Gold now have three weeks to prepare for the New York State Championships, which begin Feb. 25.