After a break of over a month from competition, the men’s and women’s swimming teams were back at it with victories over Purchase College on Jan. 16 and Oneonta on Jan. 26. after falling to SUNY Cortland on Jan. 11.
At Oneonta, New Paltz came out hot winning the first two events in the women and men’s 400-yard medley relays. It was a historic relay for the women as the team consisting of third-year Chelsea Angulas, second-year Lindsay Kranitz, and fourth-years Nicole Lee and Katie Donlevy finished with a time of 3:58.63, one that shattered the previous Elting Pool record of 4:03.48 from 2012. The men’s side consisted of first-years Mitch Chappell, Luke Gamboli, Akiva Garfield and fourth-year Yaya Toure who secured a time of 3:58.54.
Standout individual performances include Lee’s 23.87 time in the 50-yard freestyle to set another pool record and earn her the honor of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Swimmer of the Week. Donlevy secured a first place finish in the 200-yard freestyle (2:02.57) while Angulas finished first in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.08). Fourth-year Jaimie Kaefer added a pair of victories for the women’s side in the 500-yard freestyle (5:35.24) and 400-yard individual medley (4:41.96).
The men had the two best finishes in their 1650-yard freestyle with fourth-year Barrett Celecki finishing first (16:47.50) and first-year teamate Ethan Bonney close behind (17:23.34). Celecki swam to another first-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle (5:01.00) while Garfield secured the victory in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:04.80).
Both sides were dominant in the meet as the women’s side totaled seven individual victories while the men racked in five. Overall, the Hawks won 14 of the 22 events that day en route to a 109-96 victory on the men’s side while the women’s came out on top 113-85.
“Our dual meets have showed us that these other teams want to win just as bad as we do,” said second-year Nolan West. “If we want to achieve our goals we will have to take these next few weeks very seriously.”
The Hawks were just as dominant at Purchase College, where the women were able to come out with a 52-48 victory in a shortened meet while the men dominated 100-28.
Celecki had some great swims, coming in first in both the 100-yard freestyle (51.69) and 500-yard freestyle (4.59.02). Fourth-year Joe Galante also had himself a day swimming to a first-place finish in the men’s 50-yard freestyle (23.78) and a second-place in the 50-yard butterfly (26.25) behind first-year teammate Luke Gamboli (25.92).
Of the 20 events that day, six were comprised of only New Paltz swimmers, giving them a chance at some friendly competition. Second-year Tessa Griger took advantage of the opportunity defeating her teammates in the 100-yard and 500-yard freestyles with times of 59.09 and 5:53.42 respectively.
The Hawks only loss in January came at home against rival SUNY Cortland falling on the men’s side 167-95 and 141-118 on the women’s. Despite the defeat, New Paltz was able to come out victorious in nine events.
“The team had just spent eight days in Florida training the hardest we have all season,” Angulas said. “We had one day to return to New Paltz in order to continue training at an elite level prior to the meet. We were not rested, yet we gave it our all.”
On the men’s side Celecki dominated yet again with a trio of first-place finishes in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:14.01), 200-yard freestyle (1:49.11) and 500-yard freestyle (4:59.00). First-year Jared Finn tacked on a victory of his own with a time of 50.47 in the 100-yard freestyle.
The women were able to secure five victories on the day including a pair of relay victories in the 200-yard medley relay consisting of Angulas, Kranitz, Donlevy and Kaefer (1:53.37) and the 400-yard freestyle relay of Angulas, Griger, Donlevy and Lee (3:47.36).
The best event of the day for the lady Hawks was the 100-yard backstroke where Angulas (1:01.30), Griger (1:02.66) and Lee (1:03.84) took the first three spots respectively.
The Hawks will be back at it this Saturday Feb. 2 when they take on rival SUNY Geneseo at the SUNY Geneseo Invite, followed by the start of the SUNYAC Tournament on Feb. 20.