Scranton Women; USMMA Men Earn Landmark Swimming & Diving Championships

KINGS POINT, N.Y. - The University of Scranton women's team, and the United States Merchant Marine men's team led from start to finish to claim the first ever Landmark Conference Swimming & Diving Championships in Kings Point, N.Y. Sunday evening.

In addition to the team titles, several individual awards were presented following the competition. On the women's side Scranton earned the Swimmer of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors as Erin O'Connor and Allison Sampson earning those honors respectively. Scranton coaches Tomm Evans and Paul DeAngelo were also recognized as the Coaching Staff of the Year. USMMA diver Jaquelyn Peterson was recognized as the Diver of the Year.

On the men's side Susquehanna University, which finished as a runner-up on the team title claimed two of the awards. Jeffrey Fornadley was named the Co-Swimmer of the Year while teammate Joe Scheno was selected as the Rookie of the Year. Scranton's Joseph Veselovsky shared the Swimmer of the Year honor with Fornadley. The USMMA coaching staff of Sean Tedesco, Olga Wojcik and Kevin Ryan were rewarded for helping the Mariners to the title as they were honored as the Coaching Staff of the Year.

Scranton and USMMA were both leading after the opening day of the team competition and maintained those leads throughout the three-day event. The Royals' women finished with 599.50 points to finish nearly 200 points ahead of The Catholic University of America which closed with 400 points. Goucher College was third at 328.50 while Susquehanna produced 304 points for fourth place. Drew came in with 152 points, USMMA totaled 144 and Juniata College rounded out the standings with 74.

USMMA's winning margin was not quite as large but the team was comfortably in front all weekend and eventually finished with 633 points, compared to 566 for Susquehanna. Catholic finished in the top three on the men's side as well, finishing with 303 points. Scranton produced 287 points for fourth place, Drew had 121 for fifth place and Goucher closed the meet with 119 to place sixth.

The award winners played a big role for the Royals as they picked up the title as each of them earned an individual win on the final day. Allison Sampson started the final session by recording a victory in the 1,650 freestyle in a time of 18:43.24. O'Connor then earned her third individual win of the championships as she bested the field in the 200 butterfly with a winning time of 2:16.77 which was good for nearly a 10-second victory. Scranton also had three swimmers in the finals in both the 200 breaststroke and had three in addition to O'Connor in the 200 fly.

Goucher stayed in contention on the day by earning a pair of individual titles. Bethany Natoli was the victor in the 200 backstroke, her second win of the weekend, when she posted a time of 2:13.74. Also earning her second victory of the meet was Britt Hogstrom who swam a time of 55.81 to win the 100 freestyle.

Catholic's Lisa Brooks was the other individual winner on the final day when she bested the field in the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:30.03. It was also her second win of the championship.

The meet then closed with Catholic and Scranton tying for the win in the 400 freestyle relay. The team of Lauren Wood, Samantha McClellan, Helene Nicoletti and Krystal Dole for Catholic and Danielle Heffernana, Lauren Hosko, Jillian Mishko and Lauren Wieland for Scranton each swam a time of 3:44.25.

For the men USMMA closed out its victory by earning a pair of individual wins on the final day. David Scarberry got it started for the Mariners with a win in the 1,650 freestyle as he recorded a winning time of 17:07.49. His teammate Andrew Seebode then earned the team's final victory of the meet with a time of 2:15.91 in the 200 breaststroke. The Mariners also piled up points in a number of events throughout the night including runner-up finishes in two events, and placing four athletes in the top six in one of those.

Co-Swimmer of the Year Fornadley captured his third victory of the meet with a win in the 100 freestyle. He swam a winning time of 46.70 to win the event by more than a second. His teammate Alexander Thurstlic was also a victor on the evening when he touched the wall first in the 200 backstroke. He earned a narrow victory with a time of 2:00.79, less than .5 faster than the second-place finisher.

Earning the final victory on the day was the other Co-Swimmer of the Year Veselovsky who posted a time of 1:56.74 to earn a win in the 200 butterfly.

Susquehanna then closed its very strong meet by earning a team win in the 400 freestyle relay. Fornadley, Thurstlic and Scheno were joined by Jeff Kormanik to record a winning time of 3:12.46.

Several of the Landmark swimmers and divers will now move on to compete at the ECAC Championships with others trying to qualify for the NCAA Division III Championships.