NP to face Ellis and the Brewers:

This Saturday New Paltz will travel over the Hudson River to face rivals Vassar College.  This will be the first meeting between NP and alumni Erica Ellis ‘09, who is in her first season as an assistant coach with Vassar.

See Erica Ellis’s Coaches Profile on the Vassar Website.  As a swimmer at NP, Ellis holds the school records in the 100 breaststroke, 100 butterfly, and as the fly leg of the 200 and 400 medley relays.  She was a 5x NCAA All-American.

Format:

200 Medley Relay

1000 Free

200 Free

50 Free

400 IM

1M Diving

100 Fly

100 Free

100 Back

500 Free

3M Dive Break

100 Breast

200 Free Relay

Diving:

For the first time in my 1.5 years as coach, Diving will factor into the decision at a duel meet.  To help the Hawk men– Matt Gassert, Pete Nastasi, and Keith MacDonald will hit the boards on 1 meter.  Wish them luck!

Last Year:

Ellis and Cozzolongo Pace Hawks Past Brewers
11/22/08

The men’s and women’s swimming teams hosted Vassar and swept the Brewers. The women’s team won 111-88, while the men won 130-71. The women remain undefeated in dual meet competition, improving their record to 5-0, while the men advance to 2-3.

Senior Erica Ellis was a double winner taking the 200 IM (2:18.42) and the 100 butterfly (1:02.07) and was part of the winning 400 medley relay. Ellis teamed with Jessica Lester, Joelle Hopf and Allison Wells to combine for a time of 4:12.85. Melinda Pullen won the 1000 free in 11:17.54 and Wells captured the 50 free (25.96). Christine Rieth took the 100 free (54.65) and Lester touched first in the 500 free (5:29.85). Hopf posted the fastest time in the 100 breaststroke as she exhibitioned in a time of 1:10.14. Rieth, Lauren Doolittle, Samantha Graham and Marissa Morris won the 400 freestyle relay in an exhibition time of 3:51.79.

Junior Stephen Cozzolongo won two individual events including the 200 IM (2:05.01) and the 100 butterfly (55:40) and was on the 400 yard medley winning relay. The relay included Cozzolongo, Patrick Rathbun, Rob Webb and Dave Gardner and they finished in 3:44.59. Pete Nastasi won the 100 free (51.09) and the 200 free (1:49.47) and was part of the winning 400 freestyle relay in an exhibition time of 3:23.35. Nastasti teamed with Rathbun, Billy Papetti and Matt Demerest. Marc Battisti led a New Paltz sweep in the 1000 free in 10:35.15. Rathbun won the 50 free (22.94), Andrew Outcault captured the 100 backstroke (1:00.42) and Gardner finished first in the 500 free (5:03.74).

Scouting the Opponents:

Last week Vassar fell on both sides to RPI.  Results can be found here:  http://www.vassarathletics.com/custompages/WSWIM/2010/RPI.htm

The Brewers will face Pace University on Friday before hosting us on Saturday.

Last Week:

Last week the Rowan vs New Paltz swim meet was canceled due to team sickness.  The meet has not been rescheduled.

2 Weeks ago:  The NP women defeated Oneonta 154-102 and fell on the final relay to the Coast Guard Academy 136-126.  The NP men defeated Oneonta 153-108, and fell to Coast Guard 167-92.

Full results can be found here

Upcoming Schedule:

11/21 @ Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY) 1:00

12/4-6 ECAC Championship (East Meadow, NY) 10:00/6:00

12/28-1/6 Training trip to Bradenton Beach, FL

Steve Cozzolongo was featured in this week’s Senior in the Spotlight article along with women’s basketball player Carly Minehan.

Click here for a link to the article.

This Week:

The Hawks tackle their only 2 duel meet weekend with SUNY Oneonta away on Friday night at 4:00pm and then the US Coast Guard Academy at home on Saturday at 1:00pm.

Format:

@ Oneonta – 400 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, 400 IM, 200 Free Relay

Vs. Coast Guard- 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

Last Year:

In 2008, the New Paltz women swept the same weekend doubleheader, defeating Oneonta 129-71 and Coast Guard 144-118.  The New Paltz men split, beating Oneonta 115-63 but falling to Coast Guard 143-113.  Then freshmen Pete Nastasi had a landmark swim in the 1000 Free, going an in-season best 10:10 to lead the Hawk men.

Scouting the Opponents:

The Oneonta Red Dragons began with a pair of losses to SUNYAC rival Oswego last week.  Results can be found here: http://www.oneonta.edu/academics/athletics/archives/swimming/0910/oswego09.htm

Coast Guard travels to NY to face against New Paltz for the 2^nd straight week.  Last week, Coast Guard swept the Union Relay meet, scoring 120 points on the women’s side and 164 points on the mens side.

Last Week:

The Hawk women finished 3^rd of 4 teams and the men finished 4^th of 4 at the Union Relay Invitational.  The Hawk women claimed three relay victories, in the 300 Back Relay (Suzuka, Morris, Lester), 300 Fly Relay (Suzuka, Genovese, Wells) and 500 Crescendo Relay (Lown, Wells, Morris, Lester).  Diving played a big part in the finish as New Paltz men would have finished 2^nd if we had a program.  Results can be found here:  http://www.unionathletics.com/documents/2009/10/31/Union%20Relay%20Results%202009.htm?id=602

Upcoming Schedule:

11/14 vs. Rowan University (New Paltz, NY)1:00

11/21 @ Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY) 1:00

12/4-6 ECAC Championship (East Meadow, NY) 10:00/6:00

Lauren Doolittle has been featured in this week’s “Senior in the Spotlight”.

Click here for a link to the page.

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

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.

“I’ll never forget getting to Emory University for the 1984 Division III NCAA Finals and being so intimidated. Mark and I were Seniors so this was our last chance at making All America. Art (coach) got us to the pool the day before. Our ranking was pretty low, so we did not think we had a chance. But looking from the stands we saw a 6′ x 6′ Banner on the pool deck and it said “Yeah Baby Yeah”, initially we all thought’ who stole our cheer?’. But we went down to investigate, the NP Women’s Swimmers had just been there for their NCAA Finals and hung this Banner for us. It was at that moment all my nerves and intimidation went out the window, we went onto make All America and a 25 year record!”

– Brian Hanratty

It was 1984.  Last year, a runner up finish at the Metropolitan conference championships had ended NP athletics’ greatest dynasty– 4 straight team championships–and the team was focused and dedicated as they approached the final meets of the season.  It was this year that the quartet of Paul Strothenke, Paul Robbins, Mark Schoenherr, and Brian Hanratty set a mark of 3:09.09 in the 400 Freestyle Relay.  This record still stands today as the oldest remaining varsity record on the board.  As this milestone reaches its 25^th (and final!) year, we take a look back and relive the memory of this season.  Who better to tell this story than the hall of fame coach himself, Art Stockin…

From Art Stockin—legendary swimming coach @ New Paltz

It’s funny how things happen. I guess we all need the how’s of why things happen, even if they are one person’s theory.  We all seem to have a basic need to have things explained.  Here is my explanation of the record setting 400 yd. Free Relay.

We didn’t have any idea at the time that that relay set the record, that it would stand up all of these years. In fact, that was probably the farthest thing from our thinking.  We were all caught up in the moment.  As you all know, the 400 free relay is the last event on the college dual meet as well as championship schedule of events. That occurrence in itself is quite prophetic. Whether the designer was that clever or whether it was just happenstance is as mysterious as how Doubleday came up with 90 feet as the perfect distance from home plate to 1st base.  Anyway, the 400 free relay so many times becomes the exclamation point of a meet, a season, or a career.

For three seasons in the early 80’s, our teams had one loss seasons, all three of those losses came at the hands of West Point and all came down to the last leg of the 400 yd. free relay.  All four members of the 1984 record setting relay had suffered the frustration of seeing a perfect season dashed by West Point.  That relay team, although they won the Metropolitan Conference Championship 400 relay, lost the overall championship to their evil opponents from Stony brook. They were frustrated, but they weren’t defeated.

In struggle and loss, character is developed. Perseverance seems to be the one trait that will eventually spell success.  Ironically, it is not always talent that wins. Of course the four members of that relay had individual talent, but a relay is special.  It is a beautiful thing to see when it clicks and an awful experience if it doesn’t. Relays are my favorite part of swimming.  They are one short of a basketball team and they must play as a team.  Nothing brings you to the front of your seat more than a meet deciding relay.

That relay of four men had lost and developed character along the way.  They had persevered and were out to prove one last time that they really were winners.  They even believed that they could go 3:06 if they put it all together.  Strothenke, Robbins, and Hanratty had all made All-American in individual events multiple times but Schoenherr, although, qualifying for individual events , had never achieved an All-American award. This was his last chance and he was going to do his part if it killed him. This group had a team bond and a love for each other that ran much deeper than individual achievement.  Without saying it, deep down they wanted to get this for Schoenherr.

Strothenke, although our most decorated All-American, was ironically the slowest member of that team.  The distance was just to short for him.  But his fight was incredible!  We led off with him.  He always closed the gap on his last length. Robbins went second.  He was our fastest swimmer.  He was just fast and he really believed he could beat anybody.  He made up for anything that Stro may have given away. He turned it over to Schoenherr in clean water. Now it was up to our two seniors, Schoenherr and Hanratty.  Schoenherr knew this spot like the back of his hand.  He had swam 100 yds over his career more than any other event. He had missed turns and won touch outs and had been touched out.  He had been on numerous championship teams and on numerous championship relays. He had filed it all away and had matured as a swimmer and as a person along the way. On his leg it all clicked.  He studied the walls on each turn and concentrated on details like holding his breathing pattern and the drive to the finish. He did his part. He swam a career best 100 in the last race of his career.  Now it was up to Hanratty.  Hanratty was a perfect specimen.  Perfect body, perfect stroke, a perfectionist.  He was never satisfied.  He always thought he could do better.  Above all, he was the ultimate competitor, the ideal guy to have at the end of your relay. As one team member described him, “He would give everything away to a competitor but the finish.”  He knew how to get his hand on the wall.  That, I think he was born with!  They finished in 3:09.09.  They could have been faster but I think they were conservative on their takeoffs, fearful of being D.Q’d.

It was a moment I have clearly recalled all of these years. I am sure they have also.  It was one of those moments in time, three minutes and nine seconds that will last a lifetime.  I love those guys.  They loved each other and that experience at Emory University.  They persevered and were successful.

Paul Strothenke lives and works in New Paltz, NY.  He is the owner of Mid- Hudson VIP, a employee benefits / health insurance agency.  He and his wife Mary have three children – Dan (sophomore @ Geneseo), Luke (senior @ NP high school) and Mark (sophomore @ NP high school).

Paul Robbins works for Godsell construction company in Manhatten and lives on Long Island.  His record in the 50 free was just broken last season.

Brian Hanratty works for Pitney Bowes in Stamford, CT in their Corporate Real Estate Department as Project Manager handling Lease Transactions.

The 400 Free Relay Team (1984)