Swimming Finishes Fourth at ECAC; Ellis Wins 100 Breaststroke

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving team completed competition at the ECAC Winter Championships on Long Island and both teams finished in fourth place. The women totaled 557 points and the men totaled 423.50 points.

On Saturday evening, senior Erica Ellis took first in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:08.81. Senior Joelle Hopf finished third (1:09.43) and sophomore Becky Baker touched fifth (1:09.96). One event later, Ellis finished third in the 100 butterfly in 1:00.80, missing her own school record mark of 1:00.35. Hopf finished sixth in the 400 IM (4:48.89) as she improved her seed time by almost nine full seconds. Sophomore Marissa Morris took fourth in the 100 backstroke (1:01.55) and fifth in the 200 free (1:58.86). Morris teamed up with Allison Wells, Christine Rieth and Jessica Lester to take third in the 200 freestyle relay (1:40.32). On Sunday, Lester posted a fourth place finish in the 500 freestyle (5:20.22) and Morris touched fifth (5:20.37). Rieth captured third in the 50 free (25.19) and Hopf took sixth in the 200 IM (2:17.92). The 400 yard medley relay of Tiffany Sorrell, Hopf, Ellis and Rieth captured third (4:09.40) and the 400 freestyle relay of Rieth, Wells, Lester and Morris took third (3:40.10). On the weekend Hopf, Morris and Ellis each ranked in the top ten individual scores. Hopf and Morris posted 59 points, while Ellis totaled 57.

Junior Stephen Cozzolongo finished second in the 100 backstroke (53.65) and fourth in the 100 butterfly (53.22). Sophomore Dave Gardner took fourth place in the 200 free (1:46.11) and teamed with Billy Papetti, Pat Rathbun, and Matt Demerest to finished third in the 200 freestyle relay (1:26.46). The quartet set a new varsity record, breaking the old mark of 1:21.11 set in 1994. It is the first men’s record to be broken at New Paltz since 2002. Sophomore Rob Webb placed sixth in the 400 IM (4:23.89) and seventh in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.13). On Sunday, Gardner took second in the 50 free (21.83) and first year Pete Nastasi went 4:48.86 in the 500 freestyle, placing him fifth. Cozzolongo finished sixth in the 200 IM (2:03.38) and teamed up with Jesse Sweeney, Webb and Gardner for a fifth place finish in the 400 medley relay (3:37.41). Papetti, Rathbun, Demerest and Gardner touched fourth in the 400 free relay (3:16.58). At the end of the weekend Cozzolongo and Gardner made the top ten individual performance score list as Cozzolongo posted 54 points and Gardner tallied 48 points.

The women’s team will return to the pool on Monday, January 12th at 1pm when they host NYU. And the men’s and women’s teams will both host Geneseo on Thursday January 15th at 1pm.

Full results can be found at http://www.besmarttinc.com/ by clicking on meet information and selecting the 2008 ECAC Winter Championships.