Feb. 15, 2003
The Stony Brook men's and women's swimming and diving teams closed out the 2002-03 America East conference championships Sunday night in Orono, Maine after three days of intense competition. The men's team claimed third overall, finishing behind Boston University and Binghamton. The women left Orono with a sixth-place finish.
The men tallied 644.50 points over the course of the weekend and were spurred on by four swimmers in the 200 backstroke. Nathan French took first place in the event with a time of 1:55.19, while his teammates took home the fifth through seventh positions. Jason Ferrara came in fifth (2:01.76), Kyle Thornton was sixth (2:02.94), and Yohann Littee finished seventh (2:03.10). French would go on to tally a second-place finish in the 100 back (53.47) and a third-place finish in the 500 free with his time of 4:45.49. The team of James Payne, Roger Pugh, Dan Berzansky and Ted Freeborn also scored a first-place finish on the day with their time of 1.25.53 in the 200 free relay. The relay team of French, Kirill Alekseyev, Matt Hanson and Freeborn also took second in the 400 medley. Payne, French, Berzansky and Freeborn continued the strong relay performance by scoring a third-place finish with their time of 3:09.61 in the 400 free relay.
Hanson would take the top prize in the 100 fly with his time of 51.08. He also had a strong day in the 200 IM and 200 fly. His time of 1:57.74 was good enough for third overall in the 200 IM and his 1:51.61 landed him in second in the fly. Freeborn continued his impressive 2002-03 campaign with his second-place finish in the 50 free with his time of 21.60. Freeborn also posted a runner-up performance in the 100 free. Patrick Marcel would claim the second spot on both the one and three-meter boards with his tally of 262.80 and 466.70.
The women took sixth overall in the championship of the 400 medley relay. The team of Kim Harris, Jessica Claud, Michelle Miller and Starlyn Rupinski finished with a time of 4:06.30. The relay team in the 200 medley also found similar success. Harris, Claud, Miller and Jamie Bevilacqua took sixth with their time of 1:53.13. Claud, individually, would have a sixth-place finish of her own in the 100 breaststroke. Like Claud, Harris would have her own sixth-place spot with her time of 1:00.41 in the 100 back.
Complete results for the 2003 America East conference championships can be found at http://americaeast.com/swimming/2003/day3.htm.
