By Lucas Szews

Many high school and colleges across America are promoting community service to their students. Loyola University Maryland is no different as they offer many programs for students to immerse themselves in community service. Some of these programs are aimed at helping children from the Baltimore community, both mentally and physically.  One of the programs that focus on the physical aspect would be the Mother Seton Academy Fitness program that takes place here at Loyola.

Read more: Mother Seton Academy Fitness

By Jay Mulieri

The Loyola University Greyhounds men’s swim team came into this fall season with high expectations. Although they lost some key seniors who contributed a lot to the team’s success last year, the men’s swimmers are expected to hoist the trophy for a fourth consecutive time next spring. Two key pieces to the puzzle are Pat Mukri, senior captain from Silver Spring, Maryland and Brennan Morris, junior standout from Lutherville, Maryland.

This fall the Greyhounds got off to a bit of a slow start. Morris explained his thoughts saying, “I just think we were missing all that senior leadership, but we’ll be alright.” The Greyhounds didn’t perform well in the first few meets, but their times were where they needed to be. The competition was stiff in the first few meets against Navy and George Mason, but the Greyhounds intuition that their times would eventually bring success proved true when they defeated the Howard Bison in Washington DC.

Although team success is important for the Greyhounds, Brennan Morris has been a large part of that success because of his individual success. Morris won all seven events he competed in last weekend at the H2ounds Invitational leading the team to victories over conference rivals Iona, Marist and Saint Peter’s. He extended his unbeaten streak to 14 in individual events this season. His time of 3:48.81 in the 400 IM currently ranks third in the NCAA this season and breaks his own school record of 3:49.71 from last year’s MAAC Championships. When asked about breaking his own individual record Morris said, “Yeah, it’s nice to get the individual stuff, but it’s all about the team and accomplishing our team goals.”

Having lost more than five very significant seniors, taking a leadership role as captain and trying to accomplish these goals is something new for Pat Mukri, but he is embracing the challenge. “I’m not a really loud guy in the locker room. I just try and lead by example in the pool,” Mukri said. The Greyhounds work hard all fall preparing for meets, and using this strong foundation is important to build on for the stretch run in the spring. “We just have to keep grinding in the pool. We got to grind on our own over breaks, and we just have to want to get better,” said the senior captain.

“It was nice to wrap up the fall season beating conference rivals and proving we’re still the team to beat,” the impressive duo said. The first meet back in the spring is against Rider, the team’s stiffest competition in the MAAC. “We can’t let our guard down. It’s fun having the pressure on us to win though, we embrace it,” Mukri said.

Click "Read More" to see our Loyola Sports Round up!

Read more: Loyola Sports Round Up

Loyola defeated Marist 76-63 in their conference home opener Thursday night at Reitz Arena. The Greyhounds struggled for a majority of the first half as Marist dominated in the paint pulling down several offensive rebounds to hold a 33-32 advantage at the break. The game continued to go back and forth and until Loyola got a little separation at the 8-minute mark of the second half, leading 66-60. The Greyhounds then went on a 10-0 run to end the game, sparked by a Robert Olson 3-pointer and a thunderous dunk to cap the run from junior Erik Etherly that got an already boisterous student section even louder.

With the win, the Greyhounds move to 5-1 on the year, and now with their first conference win they look to continue improving in key games, “This is the first time we’re 1-0 in MAAC play since 2005 and I thought the crowd really helped us with that."

Five Greyhounds scored in double figures, with guard Dylon Cormier leading all scoring with 15 points, balancing the scoring sheet for a team that play unselfish basketball by passing up guarded chances and waiting for a better opportunity.

In a conference that is not dominated by any one team, teams that are predicted to finish last are typically not extremely far off from the top tier of the league. While Marist was predicted to finish last in the conference, they proved Thursday they could compete in the MAAC. “The MAAC is a good conference, and night in and night out, it’s going to be a battle.”

Loyola embarks on a 6-game road trip, starting with another critical MAAC conference game against Siena on December 3.