The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams participated in the 2003 UCAA Championships on December 5 and 6. Union College hosted the swimming portion of the meet, while RPI’s Robison Pool was home to the diving portion. Hamilton, Rochester, Union, William Smith, St. Lawrence, Vassar, Skidmore, and Clarkson participated in the meet along with Rensselaer. The men finished in second place and the women ended fourth after two days of competitive swimming and diving.
“I think we swam very well. A second place finish for the men is great as well as fourth for the women,” said Head Coach Shannon O’Brien.
The women’s team, led by senior Meghan Hartman, scored 383 points in their fourth place finish and improved their record to 6-6. Hartman had a strong meet, winning the 200-yard individual medley, 400-yard IM, 100-yard breaststroke, and 200-yard breaststroke. Hartman set three new UCAA records with times of 4:40.54 in the 400 IM, 1:07.35 in the 100 breaststroke, and 2:25.61 in the 200 breaststroke. Her times in the 200 IM, 100 breaststroke, and 200 breaststroke were NCAA B cut qualifying times. The UCAA named Hartman Female Swimmer of the Meet.
The relay team of Ashley Schaefer, Jen Byczek, Brielle Spataro, and Karel Schnebele won the 200 yard medley relay to give RPI its only other first place finish for the women. The RPI relay teams scored 174 in the four relay races.
Schnebele tallied 19 points for RPI with point finishes in both the 100 and 200 freestyle events. Fellow freshman Tara Murnane swam in all four relay races and added six points with an 11th place finish in the 100 butterfly event, but was disqualified in the 200 butterfly.
Freshman Mike Scibelli anchored the scoring for the men’s team, with first place finishes in the 200 IM and 200 breaststroke. Scibelli added two more point finishes, scoring a total of 68 points. Pat Fell and Alvin Peh added 55 and 51 points respectively to the men’s total score of 639.5. Bryan Geiger, Kacper Harabasc, and Rob Olivo also delivered great performances for RPI. The relay teams added another 176 points for RPI.
At the Robison Pool, Melissa Hershey placed first in the 3-meter event and second in the 1-meter event. Jennifer Keyes, Hershey, and Elisa Prange totaled 58 points for the women in the two diving events. Hershey’s performance earned her Female Co-Diver of the Meet honors.
Greg Derevianko received Male Diver of the Meet honors for a first place finish in the 3-meter event and a third place finish in the 1-meter event.
Randy LaFleur, Anthony Motisi, Andrew Zacher, and Bobby Monahon joined Derevianko to score 122 points for the men.
“Without [the divers] we would not have ended up in the place we did,” commented O’Brien.
The same appeared true January 10 as the men’s swimming and diving team swam in the Kumpf Invitational held at Robison Pool. Derevianko had another strong meet to lead RPI to a second place finish behind Ithaca College.
New Paltz, Lemoyne, Clarkson, Cortland, and Skidmore also participated in the meet.
Derevianko, RPI’s only first place finisher, took first in both 1-meter and 3-meter diving events. The men’s diving squad scored 113 of Rensselaer’s 284 total points.
Fell and Scibelli also had a good showing, with Fell earning two second place finishes in the 200 and 500 freestyle events and Scibelli finishing second in the 200 breaststroke.
“We are looking forward to our training trip at the end of January,” O’Brien said.
This trip will is a great opportunity for the teams to come together.
The women’s swimming and diving team will be participating in the RPI invitational, which will be held at Robison Pool Saturday at 12 pm. Both teams’ next UCAA match-up is January 21 when they host Union at 4 pm in Red Hawks final home meet of the season.
