Records Fall as SUNY Geneseo Women Win Tri Meet

Jan 18, 2014

Everybody loves a meet that comes down to the last relay. In a sport that is highly individualistic, enjoying that team aspect of finishing out a meet on a squad of four men or women racing to decide the outcome – it’s among the greatest moments of team for swimming. On Saturday, the women of SUNY Geneseo brought their all to the tri-meet hosted in Wilmington, PA to come out victorious over Carnegie Mellon and Westminster.

The meet began with the 200 medley relay, with CMU taking first and second (1:52.96 and 1:54.13) and Westminster finishing third (1:54.21). Geneseo’s A relay finished in fourth, to put them at an early disadvantage.

In the 1000 CMU’s Kimberly Klausing ran away with the victory in a season-best time, touching in at 10:50.64 to beat Westminster’s Anne Tillie (10:59.02). Sophie deFreitas came in third, touching the wall at 11:03.16 to secure points for the Blue Wave.

The woman who stepped up the most for Geneseo was Abby Max, and she took home the team’s first win in the 200 freestyle, sneaking past CMU’s Soleil Phan for the victory. Max finished in 1:56.49 to hold off Phan (1:56.80). Lauren Zemering of CMU was third in 2:01.39.

Kira Singhaus of CMU captured the victory in the 100 backstroke, touching in at 1:01.58. She was a 57.3 in this event at the Total Performance Invite in December. Second place touch out went to Blue Wave’s Lauren Boyce (1:01.91) and third to Kelsey Reott of Westminster (1:01.94).

The top three women in the 100 breaststroke were all within two tenths of one another. CMU’s Felicia Wang led the way, touching in at 1:10.39 to edge out both Emily Jaworski of Geneseo (1:10.44) and Wang’s teammate, Natalie Kronfli (1:10.56).

Blue Wave senior Lily Powell took control of the 200 butterfly afterwards, beating Megan Garvey of the Tartans by over three seconds to take the win. Her 2:11.25 came off the strongest last 50 of the field. CMU’s Deniesse Vankat rounded out the top three, touching in at 2:15.50.

Perhaps inspired by Powell’s victory, Julie Holloway of the Blue Wave took charge and sped to the win in the 50 freestyle immediately afterward, narrowly outtouching Elissa Maercklein of CMU, 25.44 to 25.50. Allison Kirkby was third, beating out another CMU teammate by .01 to earn the spot.

Mid meet, when tensions were high and everyone was amped up, the Blue Wave divers came out on the scene to help bolster the scores for Geneseo. Emily Wanamaker and Claudia Kolakowski went 1-3 on women’s three meter diving. Wanamaker scored 291.30 points to crush the pool record set in 1989 by Allegheny’s Melissa Moody (253.70). That score was a Geneseo school record as well as qualifying her for the NCAA Zone Diving Champs. Kolakowski put up 240.10 points, right behind Machika Kaku of CMU (244.25).

On one meter, Wanamaker was again victorious, and again took down yet another pool record, this one set in 2011 by Gannon’s Dianna Rocco (232.80). Wanamaker scored 284.80 points to shatter the record, and just managed to keep ahead of Kaku for the win. Kaku also cracked the pool record, scoring 281.90 points to finish in second. Kolakowski was third with 228.30 points.

Max returned to the pool for Geneseo to win her second event in the 100 freestyle. Her 54.27 was good to out touch Phan of CMU yet again (54.56). Teammate Holloway took third, cruising in at 55.08.

Westminster stepped up their game to take the top two spots in the 200 backstroke. Erin Erdley and Kelsey Reott were within half a second of one another. Erdley touching at 2:13.12 and Reott at 1:13.61. Boyce – the second fastest in the event in the SUNYAC conference so far this year – was third (2:14.30).

Jaworski of Geneseo swam a 2:32.80 – just a little over a second away from her season best – to win, beating out CMU’s Wang by .04. Wang touched in 2:32.84 for second, followed by teammate Kronfli in third (2:35.04).

Max came in first in the 500 freestyle, adding a third title to her growing list, touching the wall in 5:15.43. She is the second woman in this event in the conference. The Tartans’ Garvey picked up second place (5:18.74) and Klausing posted a 5:20.83 to take third.

Gillian Crews of CMU was the only woman under the minute mark in the 100 butterfly, coming in at 59.84 for the win. Powell – who took the lead in the 200 butterfly for Geneseo – was second, at 1:00.50. She is currently the only SUNYAC swimmer under a minute in this event (58.73 in December). Tartan’s Vankat was third (1:00.85).

The 400 IM was a fantastic race. Phan swam a controlled race, finishing within a second of the pool record to touch in 4:38.28, more than ten seconds ahead of her next closest competitor. The battle was for second place, between Jenna Gibbons (Geneseo) and Klausing (CMU). Klausing posted yet another season best time, but ultimately Gibbons got to the wall .06 seconds faster, to finish 4:49.15 to 4:49.21.

In the final event of the night, the score was tight going in, and whoever won the 200 freestyle relay would take home the trophy in the CMU-Geneseo duel. Holloway got a strong start for the Blue Wave, and they never lost the lead. Stephanie Wilcoxen built the lead, Kala Wilkins held onto it, and Max dropped the hammer on the last 50 to go a 24.12 and help her team break the pool record set in 1997 by Moon Area High School (1:39.36).

The overall point tallies for the women’s meet were as follow: Geneseo v CMU – 153-147. Geneseo v Westminster – 201 -93.

The men’s meet was a little less exciting, although Brandon Peifer echoed Wanamaker’s success in setting  new Geneseo records on one meter (352.00), and three meter (319.80) and in sweeping the diving events. Geneseo had a 1-2-3 sweep on both one meter and three meter, and Peifer wasn’t the only one to go over the pool records; freshman Anthony Burgois scored 294.00 points on one meter to also crack the 1976 record set by Allegheny’s Jeff Gordon. Burgois’ 289.60 on three meter was also over the pool record that Peifer himself had set in 2012.

Other victories for the Blue Wave men included John Nasky who won the 1000 freestyle (10:02.41) and Yonghoon Jun who claimed the 100 butterfly (51.91). Jun currently has the top ranked time in the SUNYAC conference in the event by almost two full seconds. The 200 medley relay team of Kristian Tialios, Kenny Athans, Jun and Jordan Gay also claimed a victory at the start of the meet, taking first in 1:36.72 to best Westminster (1:37.29) and CMU (1:38.29).

Edit: As noted in the comments below, pool records were also set by two different Westminster swimmers. Steven Brooks swam a 1:54.74 to go under the old 200 backstroke  pool record, and Matt Baurle’s 58.40 in the 100 breaststroke also set a new standard. The record Brooks broke was set in 2011 by Allegheny’s Mirno Pasqualli (1:54.98). Baurle went under his own pool record, set in 2012 of 58.42. 

Overall, the men split the day, and the team scores went as follows: Geneseo v Westminster – 165 – 147. CMU v Geneseo – 170-128.

For complete meet results, click here. 

SUNY Geneseo will return to the pool for competition on January 25th to host SUNYAC rivals Oswego at 1 pm EST.