ERIN BISCHOFF
Special to The Leader
On Thursday, Feb. 20, the Blue Devil swimming and diving teams began their final and biggest meet of the season: the SUNYAC championship held at the Burt Flickinger Aquatic Center in Buffalo, NY.
At the close of the three-day long competition, the women swimmers and divers combined for 404 points, putting them in 5th place behind Oneonta State. The mens’ teams combined for a total of 497 points, earning them second place behind Geneseo.
This honorable finish was not met with ease, as the men’s team suffered two disqualifications on Saturday. The first was from senior John Estanislau in the 100-yard butterfly. An unusual delay in the starting gun caused him to dive too early into the pool, and after much consultation between officials and head coach Arthur Wang, Estanislau was deemed disqualified.
More disappointment followed in the final event of the night, the 800-yard freestyle relay. The Blue Devil squad of Estanislau, sophomore Will Baker, sophomore Liam Jones and senior Adrian Van Hall cruised to what seemed to be a two-second victory before officials issued another disqualification for what they called “a bad exchange” between two legs of the relay. Together, both DQ’s costed the team a total of 57 potential points.
Wang was quoted in saying “this is probably my most disappointing day as a coach. The kids are just beat up.”
Despite these setbacks, the men came back strong by claiming second place in the 400-yard freestyle relay Saturday evening. The squad — consisting of Estanislau, Jones, senior David Adamczak and Van Hall — set the school record at a new time of 3:08.05.
The men also dominated in the 200-freestyle relay, with Estanislau swimming the opening leg in 20.83 seconds. With fellow seniors Andrew Case, Adamczak and Van Hall, they swam a final time of 1:23.40 — 1.65 seconds faster than Geneseo’s second-place relay and faster than their own previous school record of 1:24.27 at the SUNYAC meet last year.
Other record breakers included freshman Adam Clothier, who swam an incredible 100-yard freestyle in 57.92 seconds, shattering the previous record of 59.55. Van Hall also broke a 27-year team record in the 200-yard freestyle, touching in 1:43.22 at finals, finishing third. In the 200-medley relay, senior Andrew Case, Clothier, Estanislau and Adamczak set a new record of 1:35.32, and finally, Case broke his own school record in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:15.95, better than his 4:16.11 last year. Case’s final time Friday was also two seconds faster than his preliminary time earlier in the day.
Freshman Jeff Matter walked away from the diving well with a fist place SUNYAC victory and finished with 524.80 points from the 3-meter board. Matter was also named Male Diver of the Meet — Fredonia’s fifth in 12 seasons.
Estanislau also broke the previous school record in the 50-yard freestyle on Thursday evening. He beat his personal best from his sophomore year, 21.19 seconds, finishing with a time of 20.89. At finals later that evening, Estanislau swam a 20.98.
Finally, As a result of his success over the past four years as a Blue Devil swimmer, Estanislau was awarded the James Fulton Award. This award is given to a male senior every year who has demonstrated consistent leadership and success both athletically and academically.
The Blue Devil women’s diving team was especially successful at SUNYACs, with four divers finishing in the top five of the competition.
Senior Ashley Keller finished first place on Saturday after being the No.1 seed off both the 1 and 3-meter boards and was awarded the Female Diver of the Meet award for the second year straight. This is the ninth year in a row that the award has been given to a Fredonia Blue Devil. Her winning score was 457.35, but Keller was not alone on the podium. Teammates Katelyn Haley, Heather Colby, and Breena Cogliandro joined her, placing second, third and fifth, respectively.
For swimming events, senior Larissa Dobson broke the school record in the 200-yard breaststroke during Saturday preliminaries. Her 2:24.44 was the fastest time during preliminaries; she came back at night to swim 2:26.25, good for third place. She also broke Fredonia’s previous team record in the 100-yard breaststroke, touching in 1:06.57.
In other individual swimming events, sophomore Sam Rokos finished sixth in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:58.22, while Rosa finished fifth in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:00.07. Rosa was also fifth in the 200-yard backstroke, improving her preliminary time of 2:12.03 to 2:10.04 in the finals.
With an incredible comeback from the mens’ team, three award winners, multiple broken records, and superb results from the diving teams, the Fredonia Blue Devils were quite successful at this years SUNYAC Championship meet.