Final Team Results
Final Individual Results
East Meadow, NY – The Wagner College swimming & diving team wrapped up its final meet of 2011, finishing second at the ECAC Winter Open Swimming & Diving Championships being held in East Meadow, NY. The Seahawks accumulated 1,752 points in the three-day event, edged out by only Stevens Institute of Technology, who took first place with 1,768 points.
After an impressive first two days of competition, the Seahawks held a one-point lead over Stevens as the heats began Sunday morning. Sophomores
Alexandra Cooney (Port Jervis, NY / Minisink Valley) and
Sarah Menendez (Land O'Lakes, FL / Wharton) picked up second and third place points, respectively, in the 500 freestyle, with Cooney finishing the championship heat in 5:06.65 and Menendez in 5:08.90.
Fellow second-year
Meredith Ketchmark (Plainsboro, NJ / West Windsor-Plainsboro) picked up a second place finish of her own in the 200 individual medley, ending in 2:08.58. Classmate
Kelsey Thomas (Hammonton, NJ / Holy Spirit) missed the podium by half a second, coming in fourth place with a time of 2:12.00.
Menendez, Cooney and Ketchmark teamed up with freshman
Samantha Sides (Cherry Hill, NJ / Cherry Hill East) to take second in the last event of the competition, the 800 freestyle relay, finishing in 3:33.22.
Aside from the action in the pool, Wagner head coach
Colin Shannahan was named the women's coach of the meet, as nominated upon by his peers. "The coaches award was a great honor and is only a result of the hard work that our women have put in all season,” Shannahan said. “My assistants
Laura De Gore and
Kelly Mohr are as deserving of this award as I was and much of our success this season is owed to them."
"I could not have been more pleased with the results from this weekend,” Shannahan added. “The women outperformed all of my expectations. They fought hard all weekend and have plenty of personals bests, school records and meet records to show for their efforts."
The Seahawks, who were the only member of the Northeast Conference to participate in the 13-team competition over the weekend, will now take a much-deserved break until their next meet when they travel to Columbia on January 3.
Photo Credit: Marcello Cutti Jr./Starlight Illustrated
