The RPI women’s swimming and diving team traveled to Syracuse this past week to make their yearly pilgrimage to the New York State Championship Meet, hosted this year by Lemoyne college at the Nottingham pool in Syracuse. The meet is the last stop on the road to nationals for a number of team members who came away with qualifications for the NCAA national championship meet. The meet was a three day event. Each morning the preliminary rounds of the day’s events were held with the top 24 finishers returning for the final rounds during the evening.
The came out strong on the first day in the first event, the 200 free relay in which Allison Geer, Meghan Hartman, Katie Fredlund, and Maureen Desi took third with a time of 1:41.38. The B relay in the same event took 22nd with a time of 1:51.91 as swimmers Hill, Byczek, Lambert-Santana, and O’Connor anchored the event for the team. Team captains Hartman and Geer brought a one-two punch to the individual events as Hartman took second for the first time ever in the 200 IM with a time of 2:09.42 and Geer crushed the competition with a first place time of 24.42 in the 50 freestyle. The first day was finished off by the 400 medley relay team of O’Connor, Pisterzi, Heinonen, and Hill with a 13th place finish.
In the second days events, the 200 medley relay of O’Connor, Hartman, Desi, and Geer took ninth with a time of 1:55.12 followed by Heinonen, Byczek, Pisterzi, and Fredlund in 24th at 2:08.36. The team came out strong for the 400 individual medley in which Hartman destroyed the competition with a first place time of 4:36.71 followed by Desi in 17th with 5:03.17 and Kelly Heinonen in 22nd with 5:17.67. Geer continued the night with a second place finish in the 200 free with a time of 1:53.75 which was an A cut time earning her a guaranteed trip to the NCAA national championship meet.
The 800 free relay team of Hartman, Hill, Geer, and Desi finished out the evening with a fourth place time of 8:14.12.
The final evening the team started off with the 1650 in which Heinonen finished 20th in 20:24.55. Geer returned with another A cut for Nationals in the 100 free in which she took first with a 52.32. Hartman followed Geer’s lead and took first in the 200 breast in 2:25.26 a B cut provisional qualifying time for the National Championship Meet, Desi finished 21st in the event with 2:42.51. The evening was finished off by the 400
free relay team of Hartman, Fredlund, Geer, and Desi who took fourth in 3:43.37.
In diving, Melissa Hershey took second in the three meter competition with a score of 418.10 which earned her a possible nod for nationals as her score qualifies her for a B cut. In the same event Jennifer Keyes took sixth with 347.65 and Elisa Prange took 18th with 267.65. In the one meter event Hershey took seventh with 297.60 and Keyers took eigth with 283.6.
The team as whole finished in ninth place with a score of 555, the team members who qualified for nationals are now training for their meet while the rest of the team takes a much needed break. The men’s swimming and diving team will be traveling to their state championships this coming weekend at the University Rochester.
