Bridgeport Purple Knights Women’s & Men’s Swimmers Compete In Annual Biathlon

The University of Bridgeport Purple Knights Women's & Men's Swimming Teams competed in their annual 2 mile Biathlon (1-mile beach run & 1-mile sound swim) at Seaside Beach on the shores of the Long Island Sound.  The swimmers completed a one mile run on the sand beach (some injured swimmers ran the sidewalk) followed by a one mile swim along the Seaside Park shoreline back to the start/finish line at the sand volleyball courts next to campus.

The UB Purple Knights Swimming Biathlon has been contested every year since October 2009, except in 2010 when rained and cold sound water caused a cancellation of the event.  In the Women's race, rookie Adeline Martin tagged the finish post in a time of 28:44, 13 seconds ahead of junior Alina Sotnikova's Women's Biathlon Record of 28:57 (2012) but will not count as the record as Martin used the sidewalk due to an injury.  Sophomore Elena Shchekleina was second (30:18) closely followed by Freshman Shannan Bott for third (30:44).

With a strong class of first year swimmers (the five rookies finished in the top 7) the Purple Knights Men's Biathlon was an exciting and very tight race and was won in Biathlon Record time!  The race was so tight, that there was a 3-way tie for First with a winning time of 26:30, breaking the former record by 00:01.  The trio consisted of Junior Record holder Vlad Paskas joined by a pair of rookies Didac Matsuyama and Albert Alemany. The next two places went to Senior Vyacheslav Fattakhov for fourth (26:57) and another first year swimmer, Ivan Sangines finishing fifth (27:02).

Here are the Top 5 finishers:

WOMEN

MEN

The Purple Knights head back to the pool to tune up for their next inter-squad competition, the Purple Knight Pentathlon, Friday, October 18 at the Wheeler Recreation Center Natatorium.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE RESULTS