USMMA And Scranton Stay Atop Swimming Championship Standings
KINGS POINT, N.Y. - The United States Merchant Marine Academy men and The University of Scranton women were both at the top of the standings after one day of competition at the 2008 Landmark Conference Swimming & Diving Championships and both are still leading after two full days of events at the three-day championship held at the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
On the men's side USMMA holds a 95 point advantage over Susquehanna University. The Catholic University of America sits in third with 205 points, while Scranton is in fifth with 190. Drew University and Goucher College round out the standings with 97 and 89 points respectively.
The Scranton women built a 152.5 edge over Catholic to truly take control of the team competition. Goucher sits just 10.5 points behind Catholic, while Susquehanna is in fourth with 196. Host USMMA is fifth with 125, Drew sits sixth with 110 and Juniata College is in seventh place with 60 points.
Scranton seized a big advantage in the women's competition by claiming three individual event victories, while also claiming a relay title. Erin O'Connor picked up her second victory of the meet by touching the wall in a time of 4:45.37 to win the 400 individual medley. Her teammate Lauren Hosko followed up that effort with a winning performance in the 100 butterfly. She won the race in a time of 1:00.94. The winning continued in the next event as Lauren Wieland bested the field in the 200 freestyle by covering the distance in 2:01.50. The Royals then completed the evening by winning the 800 freestyle relay. O'Connor, Hosko and Wieland were joined by Mary Pat DeHaven to record a winning time of 8:11.43.
Goucher opened the evening session by recording a victory in the 200 medley relay. Bethany Natoli, Alex Deffaa, Sam Sutherland and Britt Hogstrom were the winning quartet and posted a time of 1:54.31 to narrowly outlast the second-place team by .59 seconds.
Natoli added to her relay win by earning a victory in the 100 backstroke in a time of 1:02.12. Also posting an individual event win was Lisa Brooks of Catholic who claimed a commanding win by more than two seconds in the 100 breaststroke. Brooks won the event with a time of 1:07.94. The final individual win came from USMMA's Jaquelyn Peterson who won the 1-meter diving competition after claiming the 3-meter competition on day one. Peterson earned a point total of 312.45 in the event.
On the men's side the Mariners of USMMA won a pair of individual events and one relay to help maintain their day one lead. USMMA opened the day by claiming the 200 medley relay title as the quartet of John Murphy, Stuart Whitaker, Nick Krupa and Andrew Denning notched a winning time of 1:38.23. Murphy added an individual victory later in the evening session as he swam to a win in the 100 backstroke with a winning time of 54.06. Nicholas Halbach completed the USMMA scoring as he won the 3-meter diving event by totaling 556.42 points.
Susquehanna remained within striking distance of USMMA in the team competition by earning three individual victories along with one relay title. Joe Scheno got the team going by recording a time of 53.69 to win the 100 butterfly. Jeff Fornadley kept things going with a victory in the 200 freestyle which marked his second individual title of the event. He earned a time of 1:43.90 to win by nearly four seconds. Derek Wolf was also a winner for the Crusaders when he touched the wall first in a time of 1:00.16 to win the 100 breaststroke. Fornadley and Scheno then teamed with Andrew Lyon and Alexander Thurstlic to close the night with a win in the 800 freestyle relay. The group posted a time of 7:11.45 to earn the win.
The other individual event win of the evening went to Joseph Veselovsky of Scranton who was the victor in the 400 individual medley. It was Veselovsky's second title of the championship after he won the 200 IM on Friday.
The Landmark Swimming & Diving Championships will conclude on Sunday as team champions will be crowned in the men's and women's competition. The prelims will begin at 11 a.m. on the final day of competition.
