The RPI men’s swim team took a triumphant third place at the Upper New York State College Swimming Association championship meet last week. The Engineers scored a total of 1,056 team points, falling short of only Ithaca College and Alfred University. The team’s third-place finish is the highest team finish by any RPI swim team at the state championship. Additionally, the individual accomplishments of the team members qualified a number of swimmers for the NCAA national championship, set four new school records, and earned Head Coach Shannon O’Brien the meet’s Coach of the Year award.
Two relay teams and one individual swimmer earned B-cut qualifications for the NCAA national championship meet. Pat Fell, Paul Gaffuri, Ben Fell, and Bryant Eadon made up both the 400- and 800-meter relay teams; in both events they finished second, with a time of 6:58.05 in the 800 and 3:08.93 in the 400. Both relay times set new school records and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championship meet. Individually, junior Ben Fell had three B-cut times: In the 100-meter backstroke, he tied for first with a time of 51.61, in the 200 back he won with a time of 1:53.26, and in the 500 freestyle he took second place with a time of 4:39.46, which also broke a school record.
An additional school record fell in the 400 medley relay. The relay team of Ben Fell, Steve Finkle, Pat Fell, and Gaffuri took second with a time of 3:32.33. The same group of swimmers teamed up again in the 200 medley relay to take fourth place with a time of 1:36.78. Rounding out the relay teams, Finkle, Dave Weinman, Rick Allen, and Mark Schopmeyer took eighth in the 200 free with a time of 1:30.85.
Several swimmers had shining individual performances, among them seniors Paul Gaffuri, Dave Weinman, Bill Harris, and Mark Cassalia. Gaffuri took second in the 400 IM (4:12.82), third in the 200 breast (2:11.58), and 10th in the 1650 (17:12.1). Weinman took sixth in both the 100 breast and 200 breast with times of 1:00.76 and 2:13.41, respectively. Harris took ninth in the 100 breast (1:01.28) and seventh in the 200 breast (2:13.49), and Cassalia placed 10th in the 100 breast (1:01.39) and fifth in the 200 breast (2:13.20).
Two juniors also stood out, Eric Johnson and Steve Finkle. Finkle finished fifth in the 100 breast (1:00.08), sixth in the 200 IM (1:59.39), and eighth in the 200 breast (2:13.6). Johnson was fifth in the 400 IM (4:21.32), eighth in the 500 free (4:55.31), and 11th in the 200 fly (2:01.10). Rensselaer also got strong performances from three up-and-coming freshmen. Pat Fell, Alvin Peh, and Bryant Eadon all scored in three individual events. The most notable of these was Eadon in the 1650, where he took third with a time of 16:43.40. In diving, junior Eric Internicola took ninth in the one-meter with a score of 294.70 and 10th in the three-meter event with a score of 288.10.
