The men’s and women’s swimming teams concluded their regular season with a third-place finish at the Franklin and Marshall College Invite on Saturday, Feb. 3. The Hawks will have three weeks to rest before the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championships from Feb. 22-24.
“We put our best effort out there, but it was a hard weekend for a lot of reasons,” Hawks head coach Tom Eickelberg said. “We were missing a bunch of our top kids because of illness. Some people swam really well and some people swam really poorly. That inconsistency is reflective of the fact that we’ve started to rest for SUNYACs.”
Eickelberg had his student-athletes swim events they don’t normally participate in because of his small roster for the day.
The Hawks in return managed to beat out Cabrini College, but placed behind both host Franklin and Marshall and Dickinson University.
Although New Paltz had no first-place finishers, the team had some solid performances.
The meet began with both 200-yard medley relay squads posting third-place finishes. Fourth-years Marc Piliero, Chad Plante, Colin Duell and Kevin Sales clocked in at 1 minute, 41 seconds, while fourth-years Megan Joseph and Molly McCulloch, third-year Nicole Lee and second-year Chelsea Angulas finished with a time of 1:54.62.
Fourth-year Barrett Celecki notched a season-best time of 1:48.06 in the 200-yard freestyle and finished third in the 500-yard freestyle with a 5:01.22 mark.
The Hawks concluded their meet on a high note, as the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay team missed first place by less than one second. Lee, Angulas, third-year Kaleigh O’Halloran and second-year Sarah Crespo recorded a time of 3:46.03.
The men’s 400 freestyle relay quartet also had a strong performance, finishing third. Celecki, Sales, fourth-year Caleb Treadwell and first-year Nolan West clocked in at 3:20.41.
Eickelberg explained that while his team will continue to practice and stay in shape before SUNYACs, he is being careful not to tire them out.
“We’re going to gradually taper down and make sure that they are as race ready as can be,” he said. “It’s all about making sure that they have the appropriate rest and are not over training going into SUNYACs.”