NP Swimmers have continued to excel in the classroom in Fall 2011. Our women’s team GPA was 3.21 and our men’s GPA was 3.06 this past semester.
Both teams earned NCAA Scholar All-American Status. Our men’s team actually earned the highest GPA of any men’s sport on campus.
Make sure to congratulate both our teams on their continued academic successes!
GT Bray Aquatic Center
From Dec 28 to Jan7 our team traveled south to Bradenton, FL and our annual winter trip. The trip included 2 meets- the Bradenton Invitational w/ MIT and an away meet at Savannah College of Art and Design.
Here’s a look at the GT Bray aquatic center in Bradenton, FL. We had excellent pool times of 10-12 and 6-8, and the weather was mostly warm and sunny. The training included our New Year’s day challenge set of 6 x [50, 100, or 200 ] all out from the blocks. The distance sprinted is determined by the flipping of quarters. We also completed our major IM set of 5 x 400 IM Descend 1-5 with 4 x 100 Stroke (1 round each, des 1-4) in between each 400 IM. Training was excellent, its good to have the long course base now that we are back in NY in the short course pool.
We are back in New Paltz now and ready to play host to a tri-meet with Geneseo and RIT.
At least we’re smart!
The grade report for the fall semester just came out, and NPVB as a team achieved a grade point average of 3.37!
10 of our 16 players made Dean’s List (3.30 or higher), with 2 perfect 4.0′s!
And within our competitive spirit, the group of Eleanor, Liz, Marissa, Bridget, Laura, Alex, Tara and Alessandra win the grade point average challenge with a combined score of 3.41.
As a result, next semester we will gather for a team dinner where the winning group will have their meal prepared and served to them by the losing group. And yes, I’ll be one of the winners!
Great job ladies, let’s keep it up!
I recently agreed to coach a local club team, APEX 18-1. We have 10 players- 9 seniors and 1 junior- lots of talent, and 100% willingness to try new things and improve. I also get to work with the younger age groups while waiting for our practices to begin. The experience of watching great coaches teach the very basics of what’s important reminds me that sometimes simpler really is better.
I’ve worked with these young ladies for a few weeks now, and some things have become clear:
-When you practice 3x/week instead of 5, your ball control suffers but your focus improves.
-Players at any age need to be driven to try new things before actually trying new things. It’s my job to do the driving before the teaching.
-With limited time, choose a few things to do and do them well. Could this be true with an unlimited amount of time?
-Communication and flexibility is key, but n0t at the expense of values.
-And last, embarking on a new adventure rekindles the passion for what you love.
My wife and my 2 daughters are making sacrifices for me to do this, knowing it’s a 1 year favor and not the start of a multi-year commitment.
Don’t tell them I’m having a blast!
Last year I published the NPVB Jersey Guide, a historical record of the many student-athletes who competed on the Women’s Volleyball team since 2002. I didn’t intend to ignore those previous to my tenure here; the statistical records are not as accurate or complete.
I recently updated it with the current year’s information. Click here…
and enjoy!
Jeremy Borrelli, one of two co-captains of the Men’s Swimming team, is a senior from Vestal, NY (Vestal High School). He is a 4x SUNYAC Consolation finalist in the 50 and 100 freestyles, and has been an anchor for our sprint relays this season. His improvements as an athlete have been remarkable, dropping from a 50.6 in the 100 freestyle in high school to having a team best 21.1 split in the 50 free, and 47.4 split in the 100 free, last season. His success in the pool, though, is merely complementary to his accomplishments in the classroom. In each of the past two years, Jeremy has earned the Department’s Donald Bishko Award for having the highest GPA of any male student-athlete at the college in the past academic year. He has been on the Dean’s List in every semester of his college career, is a Chi Alpha Sigma member, and also serves as President of the schools ‘Anthropology club. He carries a cumulative 3.84 GPA.
Jeremy will compete at this year’s SUNYAC championship in the sprint freestyle events and the 100 Breaststroke.
10 Questions with Jeremy Borrelli
1. In days when most colleges give lip service to the ‘ideal of the student athlete’, you really have lived that ideal. Not only are you a successful swimmer, but you also have earned the departments Donald Bishko award in each of the last 2 years for the highest GPA of any male student-athlete. How have you managed to be so successful academically?
The most likely reason for my academic success is because I was fortunate to choose a major that is fun to learn about and easy to work around. My parents always told me that it is more important to do something you enjoy even if you don’t end up making the most money with it, and archaeology is something that I enjoy to learn about and participate in, so it makes my schoolwork that much easier.
2. You also serve as the president of the Anthropology club and recently took a trip to Montreal. Discuss your experience on that trip.
My trip to Montreal was to give a poster presentation on research I did for one of my anthropology classes at the Annual American Anthropological Association’s Conference. It was cool to actually be a part of something so big. I was accompanied by two Professors and two other students from NP on the trip. When I wasn’t attending sessions at the conference I was able to explore Montreal, which is an interesting city. I don’t speak any French, so it was blatantly obvious I was a typical American tourist to all the natives of the city. It was nice to go out to dinner with some Professors, and hang out with them not in an academic setting. Also, I got to try new things that i’d never heard of before, such as “poutine” (fries, cheese curds, & gravy), which is this popular thing up there… it was actually pretty good.
3. This is your final year of your swimming career, what were your goals at the onset of the season and how are you progressing towards accomplishing them?
It’s hard to believe that this is my last year of swimming. At the onset of each year, my goals are usually to just beat my times from the previous years, but since this is my last year, I feel like my goals have changed a bit. This year, the most important goal for me personally is to try and break a school record, most likely as a part of a relay team. Particularly, I’d like to try for the 400 free relay, which is the oldest record on the board. In high school, my relay team was 1 second off that relay record, and it is my favorite relay to swim in so if we can pull that off, I’d be very happy. As a team, however, I feel that with this group of guys, we have a legitimate shot at second place in the conference so that would also be great.
4. What would you say has been your best swimming memory so far as a New Paltz Hawk?
It’s honestly hard to point out one specific memory from my time here at NP as my favorite. Anytime you get a group of guys together like we’ve had the past four years you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a good time. If I had to choose, I would have to say my favorite memory with the team is during our Florida training trip my sophomore year. Despite training outside in the 30 degree weather, swimming the 3-Kings set during a thunderstorm and all the locals in parkas while we played pro-kadima with our shirts off, it was a great time!
5. You’ve clearly made significant improvement since high school. What has helped motivate you to be so successful?
I began swimming my freshman year of high school. I took two weeks of classes and pretty much taught myself how to swim before trying out for the team. I didn’t even know how to dive. So to have the possibility of placing well at SUNYACs is really exciting for me. Knowing that I’ve come so far really helps me to stay motivated to keep going, but also keeping in mind that I can still improve a lot keeps me in check. But what really helps to motivate me the most is the other guys on the team. They are constantly pushing me and helping to get me fired up for each meet, as well as train hard during the season and in the offseason.
6. What is your favorite event and why?
My favorite event would have to be the 100 Free. It is such a different race than the 50; I love trying to hold that sprint speed for an extra 50 yards. Also, unlike the 50 where if you mess one thing up you can drop a lot of time the 100 gives you some room to catch up if you need to, which sometimes comes in handy. It’s just a fun race to swim.
7. When not swimming and studying, what do you like to do in your spare time?
When I’m not swimming or studying I am usually watching movies. Bad or good, it doesn’t matter when it comes to movies, I love watching them. Also, this past summer I got Advanced Open Water SCUBA certified. Diving is such a thrill for me, I love floating underwater and exploring coral reefs and seeing different types of marine life. I’ve dove in the Gulf of Mexico and in St. Thomas so far and would like to check out more spots in the Caribbean if I get the chance. I’d especially like to go cage diving or diving with sharks because I think they are such a cool animal. The only downside to SCUBA is that it’s an expensive hobby, so it may be a while before I can visit all the places I would like to.
8. You’re a team captain. What are some things that you do as a captain to help motivate your teammates?
As a captain I feel the best thing to do is to lead by example. If you stay motivated, keep a positive attitude and show up to practices/meets and give it your all, others will see that and replicate it. Mainly I try to keep a positive attitude and make sure everyone else stays positive regardless if they are not doing well or having a good time. Attitude is everything.
9. You recently set a lifetime best of 1:02 in the 100 Breast. To what do you attribute your success in this event?
I’m not sure how I did that time in the breast. It most likely has to do with the fact that during most kick sets I rely on breaststroke kick to get through them when my legs get tired from flutter kick. As a result, my breast kick has gotten fairly powerful, so that is most likely the reason why I was able to muscle out a 1:02. With some more technical practice with the breaststroke I think it’d be within reason to try and break 1:00, which would be pretty cool!
10. What are your plans for after graduation?
After graduation I plan on attending grad school somewhere for Underwater Archaeology. I figure that since I enjoy archaeology and I love to dive, why not combine them for a career? Since there are only a few schools that offer a degree program in that, if I’m unable to get in I have a back-up plan of becoming a shovel-bum. Basically if I don’t get into grad school I will sign up to freelance at different archaeological excavations around the country and pretty much live out of my car. A few of my professors recommend doing this as it would provide me with valuable field experiences and give me a good chance to travel all over the US, which would be a lot of fun.
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Jeremy and the New Paltz swimming teams will be traveling to Bradenton Beach, Florida for our annual winter trip December 28-Jan 7.
All great teams, all great organizations have a set of Core Values which allow them to thrive. Sometime last year I think I posted our Core Values:
Teamwork – Respect – Character – Pursuit of Excellence
Within these values, certain traditions have developed. For example, our players Pursue Excellence academically, athletically, and socially. To foster academic excellence, our new players, and anyone else who needs to, have to do required study hall during their first year. And we’re proud of the fact that our team has earned the AVCA Team Academic Award a number of times.
For Teamwork, we work hard to prevent cliques from forming. One of the ways we do this is to play games to figure out hotel room groups when we travel. Through these games, roommates are chosen by chance, allowing our players to constantly room with different teammates and providing another opportunity to learn about one another.
Alums will know what I mean when I say Family Circle connects each of our Core Values.
Within this framework, how do we allow individual teams to establish their own identity? We don’t want to sacrifice any of these Values, for they are what makes NPVB who we are. But are their other ways to integrate them? A better way, for example, to achieve academic excellence or prevent cliques from forming, using the examples from above? In doing so, are we disconnecting from the past, or recognizing generational differences?
I know some of our current players don’t want to hear about our past NCAA experiences. They want to do what’s necessary to enable themselves to have one or more of their own, to experience it first-hand. I love that! But they need to remember those past NCAA experiences are what opened up opportunities for us to do some things now, like compete in Colorado this season.
So if the past experiences enable current opportunities, we don’t want to disconnect ourselves. But if we’re doing certain things only because they’re “tradition”, we’re missing out on an opportunity for each team to create their own identity, its own path.
Where do we draw the line?
Perhaps through conversations and communication about what’s truly important. And rather than not doing something at all, we do it but allow each individual team to put a “spin” on it, thus making it their own. That way, we uphold our Core Values, Tradition, and also establish a New Identity.
Thoughts? Post them in the comments section or feel free to email.
I am proud to report that we had our best finish ever at the ECAC Championships. The men finished in 2nd place overall with 955.5 points and the women finished in 3rd with 1076.5 points. Overall, I’m very pleased with the performances of the weekend. We had a lot of lifetime best swims, including swimmers like Ali Smoak, Emily Kenny, and Ray Amato who set lifetime bests in nearly every event they swam. Carly Marshall reset her own school record in the 100 butterfly on Saturday night, breaking the 59 second barrier and going 58.91.
Our relays helped us to the finish. The women’s 400 Medley broke the 4 minute barrier, finishing in 3:59.88, and included a great 1:09 split out of junior Anna Jakubek. The women’s 400 free Relay also turned in an impressive 3:38.18, including a 51.42 split from senior Christine Rieth. On the men’s side, we were 3:14.73 in the 400 Free Relay, finishing 2nd in the event. We also finished 4th in the 400 medley in 3:37.55.
Individually, we received strong performances from our d team. In particular, Niki Ghostlaw (5:26), Victoria Scalise (5:29) and Kelly Durma (5:32) all swam very well. Our men trailed SUNY Oneonta until the 500, but strong performances from 7 of our guys helped us to overcome Oneonta’s diving and clinched us a 2nd place finish at the meet.
Full results can be found here: http://nphawks.com/custompages/stats/swimming/2011-12/2011-12%20SWM%20ECACs%20Complete%20Results.pdf
We have our final home meet of the fall this Saturday 12/10, at 1:00pm, vs. Ramapo College.
Sessions 1 and 2 of the ECAC Championships are complete. Both teams currently sit in 3rd place, with the women trailing Wagner and Stevens Tech while the men trail Stevens Tech and Oneonta.
Session 1: We traveled early on Friday and arrived on the island for the first day. The meet started with the 200 Medley Relay. Our women finished third in 1:50.60, including a 27.5 lead off back leg from Yuka Suzuka and then a 23.50 freestyle split from Christine Rieth. The men followed up with a 1:38.12 in their relay, our fastest time of the season. The back half of this relay was excellent, with Ray Amato splitting 23.7 and Jeremy Borrelli going 21.2 for freestyle. The mile swims were overall decent, with great swims coming from Chelsea Allocco (17:53) and Niki Ghostlaw (18:53) on the women’s side. Overall, very pleased with the first session. Its great to be at this meet already.
Session 2: The energy was better, more people were in the stands, and we had a solid 2nd session as a team. Yuka Suzuka turned in a 2:08 in the 200 back, Christine Rieth a 52.13 in the 100 Free, and Carly Marshall hit 2:09 in the 200 fly. Our women’s 800 Free Relay also finished 3rd in 8:04. For the men, Pete Nastasi just missed the school record in the 200 breast, turning in a 2:10.81. We had a strong 200 back from Jesse Sweeney (1:57) and Ray Amato hit a lifetime best in the 200 fly (2:02).
Now we’ve reached the halfway point of the weekend are about to settle in to enjoy an italian meal from Borrelli’s eatery down the road. I will check in with more tonight.
