The Observer, February 29, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 19
Swimming finishes sixth at UAA championship meet
Last weekend, the Spartan swimmers competed in the University Athletic Association's Championship Meet for swimming and diving. Five swimmers will be heading to the NCAA championships. The Case swimmers came in sixth place overall in the eight-strong conference, facing some of the stiffest competition collegiate swimming has to offer.
The men's team raced to three school records, all of which are NCAA championship qualifying times. Drew Swartz led off the 400-yard medley relay in a school-record time of 52.81, which later was lowered to 52.74, on the way to another school record of 3:26.63 along with Drew Kouri, John Somerville, and Chris Marquiss. Later, the same four swimmers raced to another school record as well as an NCAA qualifying time in the 200-yard medley relay. Currently, their 200 MR time sits at ninth in the nation and is an excellent time that has a very good chance to be selected to go on to the NCAA Championship Meet.
Kevin Alland placed third in the 500-yard freestyle, simultaneously recording an NCAA qualifying time. All-Conference honors went to Drew Swartz, Kevin Alland, John Somerville, Chris Marquiss, Dan Wolak, Brian Grady, and Drew Kouri.
On the women's side, while none of the swimmers qualified for the NCAA championships, they were still very happy with their swims. Some particularly outstanding swims were had by Rachel Gostomelsky, an amazing swim in the 400 IM, dropping time off of her season best in the preliminaries, then later dropping an additional two seconds off the clock- in at a 4:48.90, winning her heat at finals and ninth place overall.
Marine Gu earned sixth place in the 100-yard free with a time of 54.43. In the 200 breast stroke, Janine Machala finished third, Rachel Gostomelsky finished 15th, Jacquie Bucker finished 16th, and Nicole Patracuolla finished 22nd. "Overall on the women's side we were very happy with our swims. Though we ended up placing sixth in the overall standings at the meet, we were very proud of the fight we put up against the other teams, especially our main competition, Rochester and Chicago," said Machala.
The five swimmers that made NCAA cutoff times got right back into the water on Monday to continue their rigorous training for the NCAA championships to be held in Oxford, Ohio on March 20-22. The final list of invitees to the championships will be posted next Thursday afternoon.
Overall, it has been an excellent season for Case swimming this year. While success can be measured in terms of wins and losses, coaches mark a team's progress and the success of their program by comparing the team's performance against school records, lifetime bests recorded, and NCAA championship qualifying times. In such a context, the Spartan swimmers have done well this season.
"On all fronts, this year's men's and women's teams were tremendously successful. Highlights for the women's team include improving in our total team score by over 200 points to 791 points, and an amazing number of lifetime bests. This team clearly believes that they can be competitive at the top of our conference, and that as our young team matures and gets deeper we will only get better each year," said coach Chris Conlon.
