Four Varsity Records Broken and One Conference Champion on Day One

Four varsity records were set and one conference champion was crowned on day one of the 2009 SUNYAC Swim Championships held at the Burt Flickinger Center in Buffalo, NY. At the end of day one the women stand in third place with 162 points, Geneseo leads (267) and Oswego is in second with 197.  On the men’s side, the Hawks are in third place (141) behind Geneseo (293) and Cortland (178).

Sophomore Christine Rieth (Penfield/Webster) won the 50 free in an NCAA provisional cut time of 24.06. It is the fifth consecutive year that New Paltz has won the 50 freestyle on the women’s side. Rieth teamed up with Marissa Morris (Toms River, NJ/Toms River East), Becky Baker (Wappingers Falls/Roy C. Ketcham) and Erica Ellis (Barnevald/Holland Patent) in the 400 medley relay. The quartet took second in a NCAA provisional and new varsity record time of 3:58.63. The old record was set in 2008 in a time of 3:58.89.

Individually, Morris took second in the 500 freestyle in an NCAA provisional time of 5:05.47, crushing the old varsity record of 5:13.65 set in 1984. Sophomore Jessica Lester (Long Beach) finished fifth in the 500 free (5:08.81) and Allison Wells (Shelton, CT/Shelton) touched seventh in the 50 free (24.92). Senior Joelle Hopf (Vestal) and Ellis each swam personal bests in the 200 IM, as Hopf took sixth (2:13.13) and Ellis took eight (2:14.69). The 200 free relay of Wells, Lester, Baker and Samantha Graham (West Islip) captured fourth in 1:40.06.

On the men’s side, sophomore Dave Gardner (Chittenango) broke the 50 freestyle varsity record in a time of 21.13 in the preliminary session. The old record (21.30) was set in 1986. Gardner finished third in the finals heat in 21.36. Gardner teamed up with Billy Papetti (Long Beach), Pat Rathbun (Long Valley, NJ/Seton Hall Prep), and Matt Demerest (Long Beach) to claim third in the 200 freestyle relay, breaking their own varsity record in 1:25.10. The 400 medley relay of Zack Lowenstein (Brick, NJ/Brick Township), Rob Webb (Hillsborough, NJ), Stephen Cozzolongo (Burlington, CT/Lewis S. Mills) and Rathbun took fourth in 3:38.16. Other top eight finishers on day one included Lowenstein who finished seventh in the 200 IM (2:00.30) and Pete Nastasi (Monroe/Monroe Woodbury) who took sixth in the 500 free (4:47.83).

The championships will continue tomorrow with the prelims starting at 10 am and the finals beginning at 6pm. Full results can be viewed at http://www.starswimming.org/results/sunyac/index.htm