The Howard Bison Swimming and Diving teams just completed a rigorous two-week training regiment in the sunshine of Ft. Myers, Florida and in their familiar stomping grounds of Burr Gymnasium.  This intense, 14-day grind came to a head on Saturday when the Bison traveled to Philadelphia to face the Drexel Dragons and the UMBC Retrievers.

The host Dragons as well as the visiting Retrievers had too much firepower for the Bison to overcome.  On the ladies side, the Bison fell to UMBC 183-97 and to Drexel 220-61.  The men, unfortunately, suffered the same fate as they dropped both of their decisions, a 207-63 mark to UMBC and a score of 222-44 in Drexel's favor.

"We understand the sacrifices we have to make physically in order to reach our goals at the end of the season," said head coach Matt Salerno.  "Racing under physical duress is not always going to be the highlight of the season.  We swam and dove tough and can use these results as momentum for the next couple of weeks."

Zadok Isaacs (Cantaro Village, Trinidad and Tobago) led the way for the Bison Men.  Isaacs finished his individual races with a victory over Drexel in the 100 butterfly with a season-best time of 53.39 and good for second place in the event.  Isaacs also brought home a solid time in his 200 freestyle with a 1:52.54, finishing in third place against the Dragons.  His split of 2:03.31 in the 200 backstroke was also good for third and provided consistent splits in each of his 50s.

Isaacs led-off the men's 400 freestyle relay that concluded the festivities for the men.  Combined with junior co-captain Steven Lott (Los Angeles, CA,) freshman Darell Hungerford (Clinton, MD,) and senior Damjan Strbac (Zagreb, Croatia,) the men finished with a time of 3:21.27, taking a second place finish to Drexel.

On the ladies side, the women were led by senior Ashley Goins and sophomore Chelsea Andrews.  Goins (Silver Spring, MD) earned her eleventh individual victory of the season when she defeated the Lady Retrievers on the 3-meter routine.  Her score of 217.10 was her highest dual meet score of the season on that board.  Goins also took second to the Lady Dragons and Lady Retrievers on the 1-meter board with her score of 200.40.  Goins also swam her season-best split in the 400 freestyle relay that ended the meet for the Lady Bison.

Andrews (Glenside, PA) swam an array of freestyle and butterfly events and came away with a victory against the Lady Dragons in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.85.  Andrews also joined with freshmen Janai Ederaine (Corona, CA) and Ashley Douglas (Missouri City, TX) along with sophomore E'lan Brewer (Lansing, MI) to take fourth place in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:55.22.

The Bison will next travel to Davidson, NC for a contest between the host Wildcats as well as Campbell, Georgia Southern, Liberty, Radford and North Carolina A&T on January 22nd.  The meet is scheduled to begin at 1PM.