Eight Swimmers Earn All-Conference; Coombs Named Outstanding Swimmer of SUNYACs

NEW PALTZ, NY — The men’s and women’s swim teams competed in the SUNYAC Championships last week and had eight individuals earn All-Conference honors for their performances.
The New Paltz men sent three winners to the podium who all earned first team honors. Sophomore Stephen Cozzolongo was first in the 100 back (:53.47), sophomore Zachary Lowenstein won the 200 IM (1:58.62) and senior Johnny Fleckenstein claimed the 400 IM (4:13.77).
On the women’s side, Michelle Coombs was the lone female to earn first team all-conference honors, while junior Erica Ellis and first years Becky Baker, Jessica Lester and Marissa Morris were each named to the second team.
Ellis broke her own varsity record in the 100 fly with a second place finish in 1:00.35 and Lester took second in the 1650 free in 18:16.33. Baker set a school record in a Bcut time of 1:07.42 to place third in the 100 breast and Morris was third in the 200 free in 1:57.75.
Coombs was named the Outstanding Female Swimmer of the meet at the SUNYAC Championships for the second consecutive year and most recently earned national collegiate swimmer of the week for Division III. Coombs won the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle and was part of the winning 200 and 400 medley relays. She successfully defended her titles in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events. She earned a national automatic qualifying time in the 200 free, winning the race in 1:53.14. In the 50 free, she touched in 23.72 and the defending National Champ in the 100 free finished in an NCAA provisional time of 51.83.
She was member of two winning relays – the 200 and 400 medley quartets. She teamed with Baker, Ellis, and Rieth to set a new meet and conference record in the 200 medley in an automatic qualifying time of 1:46.94. The 400 medley relay of Coombs, Joelle Hopf, Ellis and Rieth swam a provisional time of 3:58.89.
The 200 free relay of Coombs, Regina Davide, Allison Wells and Reith set a varsity record in a provisional qualifying time of 1:36.94 to finish second. Coombs teamed with Rieth, Morris and Wells to capture second in the 400 free relay in a new varsity record and a provisional time of 3:33.51.
All together the women set six new varsity records, one meet record, one conference record, four automatic times and four provisional times.