Women’s Swimming Takes Third, Men Take Fifth At SUNYAC Meet

BUFFALO, NY — The SUNY New Paltz swim teams completed the final session of State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championship Meet, this evening. The women’s team earned third place with 566 team points, while the men’s team collected 289 team points good for a fifth place finish.

Senior Joanna Masterson (Canandaigua, NY) finished the meet with SUNYAC Championships in the women’s 100-yard freestyle (52.89), the women’s 50-yard freestyle (24.16), and the 200-yard freestyle (1:56.90). Masterson set a conference, meet, and varsity record, with a Division III National Qualifying Time of 24.01 in the 50-yard freestyle in the preliminary round. In addition to these accolades, Masterson led the Hawks in the 400-yard freestyle relay with junior Ashley Williamson (Holland Patent, NY), freshman Beth Coleback (Rochester, NY), and freshman Joelle Hopf (Vestal, NY) who swam to a fourth place finish with a time of 3:42.24.

In the 100-yard freestyle Williamson and Coleback earned 11 points for SUNY New Paltz touching 55.95 and 56.41, respectively. Junior Katie Rapp (Liverpool, NY) swam to a second place finish with a time of 2:12.25 collecting 19 team points in the 200-yard backstroke. Junior Liz Delia (Oswego, NY) touched in 2:13.72 and Freshmen Samantha Graham (West Islip, NY) and Nicole Moss (Williamsville, NY) took twelfth and thirteenth place in the 200-yard backstroke as well.

The 200-yard breaststroke proved extremely successful for SUNY New Paltz as well with six swimmers receiving team points; freshman Joelle Hopf (Vestal, NY) (2:31.48), sophomore Regina Davide (Ossining, NY) (22:32.57), sophomore Laura Lipp (St. James, NY) (2:35.02), freshman Erika Ellis (Barneveld, NY) (2:37.48), junior Christina Magill (Paughquag, NY) (2:42.14), and junior Beth Ann Salter (Long Beach, NY) (2:44.75).

In the 200-yard butterfly sophomore Liz Ruggiero (Congers, NY) touched in 2:15.11 for fifth place, freshman Eryka Eikseth (Staten Island, NY) finished eleventh in 2:23.56, and freshman Christina Corrigan (Buffalo, NY) collected two team points with a time of 2:30.90.

The men’s 400-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Chris Smith (Suffern, NY), freshman Chad Santa Maria (Rexford, NY), sophomore John Fleckenstein (Port Jefferson, NY), and sophomore Mike Demerest (Long Beach, NY) finished in sixth place with a time of 3:20.47 earning 26 points for SUNY New Paltz. Sophomore Nick Johnson (Highland Mills, NY) (2:16.20) and junior Danny Lo (Toms River, NJ) (2:20.10) swam to sixth and eighth place finishes in the to the men’s 200-yard breaststroke. In 1650-yard freestyle, Santa Maria touched in 17:22.30 placing seventh and freshman Kevin Kent (Beacon Falls, CT) finished in 17:54.93 placing thirteenth.

The Hawks had three swimmers receive team points in the men 200-yard butterfly; Smith placed eighth (2:07.53), Melton took twelfth (2:09.90), and Chipman touched for sixteenth place (2:13.50). Fleckenstein collected nine team points for his ninth place finish in the 200-yard backstroke. Demerest swam the 100-yard freestyle touching for fifteenth place in 50.83.

The SUNY New Paltz men’s and women’s swim teams travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the Eastern Colligate Athletic Conference Championship from February 24 through 26.