Hawks Finish Third at SUNYAC Championships; Lester, Hopf and Sweeney Set School Records

February 14, 2009 SysAdmin

The 2009 SUNYAC Swimming Championships ended on Saturday and the Hawks finished third on both sides. The women totaled 550 points, behind champion Geneseo (865) and a runner up Oswego (640). The men had (505) points, behind champion Geneseo (967) and Cortland
(609). New Paltz set four more varsity records, one SUNYAC record and had five provisional qualifying times. Please note the chart below for time notations.

Sophomore Jessica Lester highlighted the women’s side as she won the 1650 freestyle in a time of 17:36.70 ($B), breaking a 25-year old varsity record and a 14-year old conference record. Senior Joelle Hopf took fourth in the 200 breaststroke in 2:26.18 (B) and broke her own varsity record in the preliminary session in 2:23.58 (*B). Lester teamed up with Christine Rieth, Allison Wells and Marissa Morris for a second place finish in the 400 free relay in a time of 3:32.91 (*B). Sophomore Rieth finished second in the 100 freestyle in 52.04 (B) and Morris touched third in the 200 backstroke in 2:08.48 (B). Other top eight finishers for the women included Becky Baker who took fifth in the 200 breast (2:27.95), Wells was seventh in the 100 free (54.94) and Amanda Cloer took seventh in the 200 fly (2:22.84).

First year Jesse Sweeney posted the top finish on the day for the men with a second place finish in the 200 backstroke in 1:55.62 (*) breaking a 13-year old varsity record. Stephen Cozzolongo took seventh in the event in 1:58.59. Sophomore Dave Gardner touched third in the 100 freestyle (46.65) and Billy Papetti finished seventh (48.16). First year Pete Nastasi touched sixth in the 1650 (16:42.10) and Marc Battisti finished seventh in (16:51.65). The 400 free relay of Papetti, Pat Rathbun, Cozzolongo and Gardner touched third in 3:09.69, missing the varsity by six tenths.

$-SUNYAC and School Record
*-School Record
B-NCAA Division III Provisional Qualifying time

Full results can be viewed at http://www.starswimming.org/results/sunyac/index.htm.