When                                                    Saturday, October 8, 2022
Where                                                   Jim McKay Natatorium
Time                                                     12:00 p.m.                                   
 
Back in the Water
The Towson University men's and women's swimming & diving programs are set to hit the water for the first time this season. The men's team is returning seven medalists from last year's third place CAA Championship finish, while the women are returning five medalists from their equal finish.
 
Where They Stand
The CSCAA has not issued a top 25 for men's or women's swimming and diving this fall. In the last poll, released on March 9, 2022, neither Towson nor George Mason received votes.
 
Scouting the Patriots
George Mason's men's team is coming off a 528-point, second place finish at the Atlantic-10 (A-10) swimming and diving championships last spring.
 
George Mason's women's team is coming off a sixth-place finish at the A-10 swimming and diving championships last season.
 
Back for More
The Tigers' women's team is returning seven seniors from last year's third-place finish in the CAA championships. The team's lone returning podium finisher from the championship meet, Samantha Casolo, is joined by fellow senior swimmers Ava Enriquez, Hailey Ritter, Holly Greenleaf, Maddie Mince, Katie Nunez and Parker Schulz. Diver Ashley Sinicropi is also a returning senior.
 
Twice as Nice
Brian Benzing, who was Honorable Mention All-America by reaching the B Finals of the 2022 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, was named the CAA Men's Swimmer of the Year for the second time in as many years last April.
 
Benzing reset the program and CAA record for the 100-yard breaststroke at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships last year with a mark of 51.47 seconds while also going unbeaten in every regular season meet in the event two years running.
 
Benzing is Towson's first men's swimmer to earn All-America mention since Jack Saunderson did so in 2018-19 in the 200-yard butterfly.
 
Bruno & Co.
New head coach Anthony Bruno is set to take the reins of the Tigers' men's and women's swimming & diving programs for the 2022-23 seasons. Bruno, a three-time conference coach of the year, comes to Towson after spending the last five seasons as the head coach of the men's and women's swimming and diving programs at Fairfield University, located in Fairfield, Conn.
 
Bruno guided the Fairfield women's swimming and diving teams to back-to-back MAAC Championships in 2018-19 and again in 2019-20, the first team titles in program history. Four times one of Bruno's student-athletes broke a MAAC record, while adding an NCAA B Cut Qualifying time to the mix, another program first at Fairfield.
 
During his tenure with the Stags, 59 men and 41 women's individual program records were set, while 39 relay program records were set, with 23 on the men's side and 16 on the women's. Over the last five seasons, new program top-10 times were set an astounding 368 times, with 188 produced on the men's side with another 180 for the women's team. Bruno coached four team members to U.S. Open-level time standards as well.
 
Bruno coached two student-athletes who swam in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Those athletes earned a silver medal and two bronzes during the most recent Paralympic Games. Bruno also coached three separate women's Swimmer of the Conference, a women's Rookie Swimmer of the Conference, a women's rookie diver of the championship meet and most recently, a men's Rookie Swimmer of the Year.
 
Oh Captains My Captains
Earlier this week, first-year head coach Anthony Bruno announced the captains for the men's and women's swimming and diving programs.
 
Women's captains: Victoria Dichak, Ava Enriquez and Katie Nunez.
 
Men's captains: Brian Benzing, Ryan Bookstein and Patrick Flint.