Jan. 20, 2016
San Jose, Calif. --- Facing one of the top teams in the Mountain West, San José State's swimming and diving team honors five seniors as the Spartans go head-to-head with the Nevada Wolf Pack on Saturday, January 23, at 1:00 p.m., at the Aquatics Center.
"The senior meet is always one of our significant moments of the season," said San José State Head Coach Sage Hopkins. "It is an opportunity to celebrate the careers of our five seniors and to look back on what they did for San José State in athletics and more importantly what San José State has done for them."
With a 6-2 dual meet record, the Spartans will be honoring seniors Amanda Buxbaum, Alli Davis, Natasha Moffitt and team captains Brynne Beneke and Riley Spitser in the final home meet of the season. The five seniors are the last members on the Spartans roster from the 2013 Western Athletic Conference championship team.
"Every senior meet we put together scrapbooks for each other, pulling pictures for each of them from our freshman year, we have grown up so much," Davis said.
The Wolf Pack hold a dual meet record of 3-0 with wins over UC Davis and conference opponents Fresno State Bulldogs and Boise State Broncos.
"We don't see Nevada as a challenge as much as an opportunity to have really good races, going up against some of the top swimmers in our conference," Buxbaum said. "We're excited to race hard and show them what we have."
San José State swam against Nevada at the Pacific Invitational to begin the swimming season. Out of the five teams competing in the invitational, the Wolf Pack took the top spot while the Spartans placed fourth.
"At this point in the season everyone is in their best events and looking to put up their best possible athletic performances as we start peaking for the conference championships," Hopkins said.
Spitser holds the San Jose State record in the 200-yard, 500-yard, 1,000-yard and 1,650-yard freestyle events, setting the records in the three distance events on the same day at the A3 Performance Invitational on November 20, 2014.
"They do have some strong swimmers, obviously they are one of the best teams in the conference," Spitser said. "All I can say is I'm going to give it my all and swim as hard as I can against whoever I'm swimming against."
Finishing two spots ahead of Nevada's Rebecca Murray at the Pacific Invitational, Spitser took first in the 500 freestyle. The Spartans' distance swimmer has seven wins in the 500 freestyle and posted a NCAA B Standard provisional qualifying time at A3 Invitational this season.
"It's a little sad because this is our last home meet and possibly the last one at this pool ever. We are very fortunate to have it at the pool we started at," Beneke said.
Beneke is listed in the school's top-10 all-time in the 100-yard and 200 freestyle, posting her best times at the 2015 Mountain West Conference championships. The team captain is also ranked in the 50-yard and 200-yard backstrokes.
"Having a race in every single event is important, it doesn't matter what the other peoples' best times are," Davis said about swimming against the Wolf Pack. "What matters is the day of the race and the event you're currently swimming."
Entering the Spartans' record book together in the 100-yard individual medley at the UC Santa Cruz and Cal Lutheran dual meet, Buxbaum is fifth all-time and Davis follows her in sixth. Buxbaum is also seventh all-time in the 200-yard breaststroke at San José State.
"It's something we all started together and we're ending together, that's really special." Moffitt said. "I'm really excited to swim alongside them."
Moffitt is fourth all-time in the 100-yard breaststroke and 10th in the 200 breaststroke for the Spartans, posting her marks in February 2013 at the Western Athletic Conference championships.
Admission to Saturday's meet against the Nevada Wolf Pack is free for students and the public.
by Brian S. Stanley, SJSU athletics media relations student assistant.