In 2008-09, the men’s swim team re-wrote the record board with six new varsity records and one SUNYAC meet and conference record. The Hawks placed third at the SUNYAC Championship, their highest finish since 2003.
Junior All-Conference selection Stephen Cozzolongo (Burlington, CT/ Lewis Mills) lead the team in record fashion as he won the 100 backstroke (52.67) in a new varsity, conference and meet record time and scored an NCAA provisional cut. He also won the 100 fly (51.74) in varsity record time. Cozzolongo teamed up with Rob Webb (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough), Dave Gardner (Chittenango, NY/Chittenango) and Billy Papetti (Long Beach, NY/Long Beach) in the 200 medley relay to break a seven-year record for second place in 1:36.23.
Individually, Gardner earned second-team All Conference as he finished third in three individual events for the Hawks. He broke the 23-year old 50 freestyle varsity record in a time of 21.13 in the preliminary session, before finishing third in the finals. Gardner took third in the 200-freestyle (1:42.82) in an NCAA provisional time and touched third in the 100-freestyle (46.65). He teamed up with Papetti, Pat Rathbun (Long Valley, NJ/ Seton Hall Prep), and Matt Demerest (Long Beach, NY/Long Beach) to claim third in the 200 freestyle relay, breaking their own varsity record in 1:25.10.
First year Jesse Sweeney (East Lyme, CT/East Lyme) posted a second place finish in the 200-backstroke in 1:55.62 breaking a 13-year old varsity record and earned second team All-Conference. Papetti and Demerest made vast improvements on the year as Papetti was a finalist in the 100 free and Demerest made finals in a three of his events (50 free, 100 free, 100 fly).
