Geneseo Blue Wave traveled to East Meadow, N.Y. last weekend to compete in the East Coast Athletic Conference championship against some of the best Division III swimmers and divers in the country, coming away with a championship and second-place finish.
The women's squad won their second consecutive ECAC championship, beating out Stevens Institute of Technology, while the men's squad placed second to SIT.
"We finished right where we expected to, Stevens recruited really well this year and this is what I expected for us," said head coach Paul Dotterweich.
On the women's side, junior Kelly Young led the way from the diving board as she set a school record in the one-meter diving board with a score of 361.8.
Freshman Megan Green also had a big weekend, winning both the 1,650 freestyle and the 500 freestyle with NCAA provisional qualifying times. Green finished in 17 minutes, 44 seconds for the 1,650-yard race and touched in 5:06.33 for the second one, finishing just ahead of junior Michelle Rodriguez, who completed her heat in an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 5:06.65.
"We had a lot of positive energy going into the meet," Green said. "The coaches really fired us up and we did well." Dotterweich agreed with Green's assessment, stating, "The other teams tapered going into this race so they had a bit more rest than us but I think we came out and had a really good meet."
One of the top team events for the women's team was in the 400 individual medley. Senior Natalie Thorpe led the way with a second-place finish in 4:43.13. Green and Rodriguez followed up in third and fourth place, touching in at 4:47.98 and 4:50.39, respectively.
The men's squad lost their crown as ECAC champions but in the eyes of Dotterweich still had a solid weekend, despite not placing first in a single event. "This was a different type of meet than our previous ones," he said. "The team had a good meet and I think that when we're well rested for SUNYACs you'll see some even faster times."
Junior WillIiam DeMoulin finished second on both boards for the Blue Wave with a score of 401.00 on the three-meter and 391.50 on the one-meter.
Sophomore Aaron Wagner placed second in the 200 IM in 1:59.43 and sophomore Ken Pink placed third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.19. Wagner and Pink later teamed up with fellow sophomores Josh Kaplan and Andrew Kuter for a second place finish in the 200 medley relay team.
Wagner said that despite a second place finish, he thought the team swam well. "There were a lot of close races, Stevens swam really well," he said. Wagner added that a big part of the team's success down the road will be their efforts over the semester break. "You have to take responsibility for that time and train hard if you want to be successful."
Dotterweich echoed Wagner's sentiments saying, "We call this time 'you' time; we'll definitely know who trained over break when we get back in the pool."
The Blue Wave is done for the semester but returns to the pool on Jan. 14 at Monroe Community College after a winter training trip to Clearwater, Fla.