Captain and lone senior Rebecca Kafko steps on the field for the last time after four years of dedication and leadership.

She exemplifies a consistent model of what it means to be a hard worker; always giving 110% in every game, practice and run.

Rebecca AKA Bex, has played an important role in the organization and discipline of the team this year, but most importantly she was our eldest sister and will be greatly missed.

We will all miss you Bex!

xoxo – women’s soccer

Bex

This Week:

SUNY New Paltz Hawks vs The Violets of New York University and the Ducks of Stevens Institute of Technology—Saturday 10/24/09 @ 1:00pm.

In the season opener, New Paltz and Stevens Tech will travel south to the Natatorium at NYU. These events will be contested:

200 Medley Relay

1000 Free

200   Free

100   Back

100   Breast

200   Fly

50     Free

–Break–

100   Free

200   Back

200   Breast

500   Free

100   Fly

–Break–

200   IM

400   Free Relay

Scouting the Violets:

Several members of the New York University Men’s  and Women’s Swimming team competed at the NCAA Division III Championships from Wednesday, March 18, through Saturday, March 21, in Minneapolis.

Senior tri-captains Andrew Lardiere (50 and 100 Free and 100 Fly), Paul Hogan (500 and 1650 Free) and Eric Wang (400IM and 200 Fly), as well as junior Eric Pcholinski (100 Free), represented the Violets in the competition.  The Violets totaled 37 points at the meet and finished 24th in the nation.

As for the Lady Violets, A trio of swimmers: junior Patricia Beck (200IM and 200 Back), sophomore Chelsea Pfohl (100 Fly and 100Back) and freshman Molly Rippe (500 and 1650 Freestyles), as well as senior diver Melanie Peters (1-Meter and 3-Meter diving), all represented the Violets at the competition.

This meet will also mark the 2009-2010 season opener for the Violets.

Scouting the Ducks:

The Stevens Institute of Technology swimming program closed out their  2009 season at the Division III NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. The women’s team sent seven swimmers and the men’s team sent sophomore Evan Wilson.

The Women’s team finished with 100.5 points, good for 11th overall and was the top finisher in the Empire 8. Barito was a two-time All-American as Hatfield, Grunewald, and Woo earned the distinction once each. The team also took home 13 honorable mention All-America accolades.

Evan Wilson earned a 20th-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle on the first day of competition and came back to take seventh in the 400-yard individual medley on the second day. That seventh made him the first All-American in the history of the program, and his 3:58.87 broke his own school-record. Wilson closed out competition by taking 20th in the 1650-yard freestyle.

The Ducks opened their 2009-2010 season last weekend against Montclair State. Freshmen Alex Benham and John Hu each set pool records in their first-ever collegiate meet. Hu touched in with a record time of 1:59.40 in the 200-yard backstroke, while Benham set a new pool record in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:39.44. Freshman Marissa Douglas set a new pool record in her first collegiate meet, posting a time of 2:16.31 in the 200-yard backstroke.

The link to the Ducks vs Montclair State meet : http://www.stevensducks.com/assets/sports/mswimming/Montclair.htm

Scouting the Hawks:

Juniors Marissa Morris and Christine Reith competed at the 2009 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships.  Morris competed in the 200 Back and 200 and 500 Freestyle events.  Reith swam the 50, 100, and 200 Freestyles.

On the year, the women set nine varsity records and won three individual SUNYAC titles, setting new conference and meet records in the two events. Junior Jessica Lester (Long Beach, NY/Long Beach) won the 1650 freestyle in a time of 17:36.70, an NCAA provisional cut. Her win broke a 25-year old varsity record and a 14-year old conference record and her split at the 1000 free mark (10:40.38) made the record chart. Reith teamed with Morris, Lester and Allison Wells to set a varsity record in the 800 free-relay (7:49.78) and in the 400 free relay (3:32.91). The 400 medley relay of Rieth, Morris, Ellis and Becky Baker took second in record time of 3:58.63.

In 2008-09, the men’s swim team re-wrote the record board with six new varsity records and one SUNYAC meet and conference record. Stephen Cozzolongo lead the team in record fashion as he won the 100 backstroke (52.67) in a new varsity, conference and meet record time and scored an NCAA provisional cut. He also won the 100 fly (51.74) in varsity record time. The team of Cozzolongo, Rob Webb, Dave Gardner and Billy Papetti in the 200 medley relay broke a seven-year record in 1:36.23.  First year Jesse Sweeney posted a second place finish in the 200-backstroke in 1:55.62 breaking a 13-year old varsity record.

This meet will be the 2009-2010 season opener for the Hawks.

New Coaches:

This meet will be the first for new assistant coaches Kevin Milkovich and Kristy O’Brien.  Milkovich joins New Paltz from Hartwick College, where he graduated in 2009 with a degree in sociology and certification in elementary education.  He was named Hartwick’s MVP of the swimming program 3x in his 4 year career and won the departments prestigious Harry Mosher Memorial Award for selfless devotion to his program.  O’Brien joins New Paltz from SUNY Oneonta.  Also a 2009 grad, she majored in Psychology.  She was a SUNYAC points scorer for the Oneonta Red Dragons in both the 400 IM and 200 Back last year.

Upcoming  Schedule:

10/31 @ Union College Relays (Troy, NY) 1:00

11/6 @ SUNY Oneonta (Oneonta, NY) 4:00

11/7 vs. US Coast Guard Academy (New Paltz, NY) 1:00

Joe Gentsch crushed Phil Goodwins 8 year old 8k New Paltz school record today at the Albany Invitational with a time of 25:29 seconds.  This bested Phils time of 26:15 by 46 seconds.  Joe’s average pace per mile was 5:08.

Danielle Harmon obliterated Janet Walsh’s five year old 5k record of 19:36 in a time of 19:05.  This eclipsed the old record by 31 seconds.  Danielles average pace per mile was 6:08

Lisa Cassaro also bested Walsh’s mark with a PR of 19:19, moving into second place in the ToP Ten All Time list for 5K Cross Country.  Lisa averaged 6:13 per mile.

A tradition of the young season, the 35th annual New Paltz Alumni Meet went off with great success.

Welcome back alums!

Over 60 alumni returned to to the Elting Pool to participate in competition and meet with old friends.  Among the crowd were:  Hall of Fame Coach Art Stockin; 1972 alum Thomas Tyrol; 1984 record holders Paul Strothenke, Paul Robbins, Mark Schoenherr, and Brian Hanratty; Hall of fame alumni Louis Petto; former diving coach Robyn Gullickson; Varsity record holders Kent Yeung, Jon Amoia, Liz Delia, Joanna Masterson, Danielle Lindner, and many more.

Along with the hoopla that surrounded the return of the alumni were some great early season swims.  Sprinters Billy Papetti and Corey Lomas had eye-opening perfromances in the 50, Steve Cozzolongo had a great 100 IM, and Pete Nastasi put in a strong runner-up performance in the 200 Free.  Marissa Morris had a great 50 split in the relay, and the NP women discovered its gem of the freshmen women’s class.

Our first meet of the season is October 24th as the Hawks travel to NYU for a double-dual along with Stevens Tech.

The 1984 relay record discusses strategy for the days race

Coach Whitbeck giving advice to Coach Ellis and co.

Tomorrow night, October 14, NPVB will honor 5 wonderful seniors- Stephanie Bova, Brittany Coyle, Ali Kiernan, Kelcey Noble, and Priska Wilson- at their final regular season home match at 7:00pm.  We will also be hosting a Dig Pink event, which is an event to raise awareness and money for Breast Cancer research.  Fans will be able to donate to this important cause during the match.  All donations will go directly to the Side-Out Foundation.

Bova, Britt, Ali, Kelcey, & Priska have had outstanding careers at New Paltz and are a big reason for the success of NPVB.  We appreciate all they do and all they bring to our team.  We hope to honor them with a win tomorrow, and more home matches to play in during the post-season!

The last time I was at the Paul Short Invite was in 1981 as a sophomore at the University of Maryland.  It was called the Lehigh Invite back then but it was always a big meet with top teams from all over the region and country in attendance.  Nearly 30 years later it was not much different.  

Our Women’s team competed in the second most competitive field of the day in the Brown Race.  There were many DI and DII schools in the field as well as our conference rivals: Cortland, Plattsburgh and Oneonta.  The race conditions were excellent and the course is rolling but fast.  It was our first big invite of the year and I think it was a bit intimidating for some of the younger runners who are not used to competing in highly competitive fields with 300 to 400 runners.  I thought the women may have been a little bit too conservative the first mile but they have not been doing alot of the kind of work that would make them feel comfortable going out hard and mixing it up with very good runners.  The women looked great overall for where they’re at this time in the season.  Danielle crushed the school record with a 23:25 and looks like she’ll be ready to go under 23 on her next fast 6k course.  Lisa was a little under the weather but still ran 24:07, just 9 seconds off last years best.  Nikki McCarthy and Nichole Wishchoff both ran there first 6k’s in 24:43 and 24:51 respectively.  Lisa, Nikki & Nichole were all out in 6:30 which was a bit pedestrian for them and need to be a bit more aggressive in the future.  Sara Wenger ran 25:22 which was a big PR for her and was through the first mile in 6:40.  Kate Frick ran 25:47 with a steady performance and a personal best and Alex Berenis ran a PR in 25:58 to round out our top 7.  

It’s about time to start to switch gears and begin to focus on sharpening.  We have less then three weeks to SUNYAC.  We will start to see how all the work begins to pay off in the coming weeks.

The men had a wake up call at Paul Short. Jr Captain Joe Gentsch ran a personal best in 26:17 for his first 8k of the season.  I think Joe was a little disappointed with his performance and knows now what areas he will need to improve on if he wants to take his running to the elite level in our conference.  Albany will give us a clear indication as to whether or not he is ready to make the move.  Rob Grazier followed Joe with a 28:28, 8 seconds off his PR. Dex Larsen ran solid with a 28:50 tying his pb from his freshmen year.   Shawn Gannon and Jeff Raab struggled in together in 29:15.  Rob Webster ran a personal best of 29:24 finally cracking the 30 min mark.

The men still have a chance to get themselves into a more competitive postion by the 31st  It will take focus and determination on their  part at Albany to set themselves up for a great race at Conference Champs.

These two teams still have alot to prove but they are both headed in the right direction.  I can’t wait until Albany this weekend.

2nd Singles Champion Montana Wilson receiving her award with SUNYAC Commissioner Pat Damore

We concluded a very successful fall tennis season last weekend at the SUNYAC Conference Championships, finishing in 2^nd place and crowning freshman Montana Wilson 2^nd singles champion. We also saw junior Lindsey Garyn, in 3^rd singles final and freshman Alli Esposito in 6^th singles final finish as runners up in their respective finals. Montana along with her doubles partner freshman Kayla DiPaulo finished runners up in a highly competitive 2^nd doubles championship.

After a tough preseason the regular season got underway very successfully with a conference away with at Plattsburgh followed by the team winning the two day RPI Tennis Invitational in Troy, NY. With a very new team we acquitted ourselves very early on in the season putting together some very impressive wins against fellow

SUNYAC Finalists left to right Kayla DiPaulo, Lindsey Garyn, Alli Esposito and Montana Wilson

conference opposition Brockport, Cortland, Oswego, Fredonia and losing a highly competitive match against our conference rivals Geneseo. Outside of our conference we posted excellent wins against RPI and Western Connecticut and our first ever win against NYU. Our top 4 players competed at the ITA National Individual Championships at William Smith, which had us drawn against some of the best Div III players in our region. Leading up to the conference championships we played local rivals Oneonta in what was a very tough match up against a highly improved team and although we won 7-2 the score was very misleading in what was a very tough match. The last dual match of the fall was against cross Hudson river rivals and #21 in the nation Vassar. A very enjoyable match against some very strong players was topped with our only win of the night by freshman Kayla DiPaulo at 4^th singles and although Ingrid lost her unbeaten record she should be very proud to have set a new school record, 13-0 before losing to a strong player from Vassar. The fall season concluded with the team standing at 9-2 overall a very respectable position to take to the spring season.

The team and family at the SUNYAC Conference Championships in Manlius, NY

Overall I’m very pleased about how this very new and young team has come together, about their work ethic both on and off the courts and how hard they competed in each and every match. I’m looking forward to the start of our challenging spring schedule and to being back on the courts in late February. Congratulations to each and every student athlete who participated in our fall program, good luck to our fall graduating senior Lyndsey Lovinger and I would like to personally thank all the parents who turned up at our home matches and all over New York State to support our tennis program.

Coach

Montana Wilson
Hopewell Junction, NY/John Jay
Freshman
Women’s Tennis

Freshman Montana Wilson was crowned SUNYAC Champion in the second singles this past weekend in Manlius, New York. Wilson was seeded second in the tournament with a 10-4 (6-1 SUNYAC) record. Wilson defeated defending sixth singles champion from 2008 Melissa Baker (Geneseo) with a come from behind victory in three sets. She cruised through the semifinal round with a straight set victory over Jenna When (Oswego). In the finals, Wilson defeated #1 seed Stephanie DiCapo (Cortland) in three sets in a come from behind victory.