The RPI men’s and women’s swim teams hosted their final home meet of the 2002-2003 season this past weekend and honored their graduating seniors. The team thanked Eric Johnson, Ben Fell, Laura Pisterzi, Allison Geer, Emily O’Connor, Maureen Desi, and Eric Internicola for all their hard work and dedication over the past four years. The seniors led the team valiantly as they hosted Hamilton College at Robison Pool this past Saturday in a meet full of excitement in which both teams unfortunately fell to Hamilton. The final team scores for the men’s team were 138.5 to 108.5 for Hamilton while the women fell 137 to 92.
The graduating seniors posted a number of strong times and took first in a number of events, with team captain Allison Geer winning two events, the 50 free (24.95) and 100 free (54.66). Men’s team captain Ben Fell won one individual event the 200 free (1:46.4) and narrowly missed taking a second first place in the 100 free falling by only two tenths of a second (47.97). In the 200 breast stroke seniors Maureen Desi (2:45.65) and Laura Pisterzi (2:58.09) were a one-two punch, taking first and second.
A number of underclassmen had noteworthy performances. Among them were Pat Spooner who took first place in the 1000 free (10:45.34) followed by Bryant Eadon who took second in the event (10:51.75). Junior Meghan Hartman took first in two events, the 400 IM (4:35.97) in which she crushed the competition and the 500 free (5:25.01). Diver Melissa Hershey narrowly missed qualifying for the NCAA championships with a score of 246.30 in the 3m event, only 4 points short of nationals.
The meet was rounded out by two winning relay teams, the women’s 400 free relay made up of Meghan Hartman, Janina Hill, Maureen Desi, and Allison Geer (3:54.38) and the men’s 400 free relay of Pat Fell, Bryant Eadon, Eric Johnson, and Ben Fell (3:17.62). The teams will now be traveling to the state championship meet in the coming weeks where a number of swimmers will be shooting to make it to nationals. They would like to thank everyone who came out to see their home meets this season.
