Jan. 28, 2011

Center Valley, Pa. — Three weekends remain before the Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championships begin Feb. 17. Each of the League’s eight schools will be wrapping up their regular-season slates over the next few weeks.

Patriot League Swimming and Diving Release - 1.28.11

This weekend features another opportunity for League swimmers and divers to compete against one another ahead of the championship meet. Colgate and Lafayette head to Army Saturday for a League tri-meet at West Point. Bucknell hosts the Bison Invitational in Lewisburg Saturday, with swimmers from American scheduled to participate.

Non-League meets are on the schedule as well this weekend. Bucknell hosts Connecticut Friday as a precursor to Saturday’s Bison Invitational, while Holy Cross takes the short trip southeast to Providence for a meet against the Friars. Divers from Army and Navy are scheduled to compete at the USA Winter Nationals Qualifying Meet in Iowa City beginning Sunday.

Simply put, last weekend was incredibly busy. Army swept Drexel Friday before performing very well at the George Mason quadrangular that also featured American. Colgate split at Binghamton with the women capturing the victory over the Bearcats while also defeating Vermont. Bucknell hosted Lehigh Saturday afternoon and captured a sweep of the Mountain Hawks, while the Holy Cross women won the Worcester City Championship and the men took second.

Navy’s women’s meet Wednesday against Johns Hopkins was postponed because of yet another East Coast snowstorm. It was the Mids’ final schedule meet of the regular season with the exception of a divers-only competition against Drexel Feb. 11.

Patriot League Weekly Awards (1.16-1.23)

MALE SWIMMER OF THE WEEK
MAC ANTHONY, NAVY Jr., Allentown, Pa.
Anthony garnered three individual first-place finishes and contributed to a relay win in Navy’s victory over Yale Saturday in Annapolis. He won the 200-meter freestyle in 1:49.93, 3.5 seconds ahead of second place and just .23 off the NCAA B-cut. He won the 200 IM by over five seconds with a clocking of 2:05.00, and captured the 200 back in 2:04.09. He swam the fastest backstroke leg of Navy’s winning 200 medley relay squad, hitting the wall in 27.03. His 200 back and 200 IM times were career bests in meters, and Saturday was the first time he’d won three races in a meet this season.

FEMALE SWIMMER OF THE WEEK
LAURA GORINSKI, NAVY So., Greensburg, Pa.
Gorinski won three individual races and swam for Navy’s victorious 200-meter medley relay in Saturday’s 161-139 win over Yale at Lejeune Hall. She took first in the 100 breast in 1:10.38, winning by 1.7 seconds, and clocked a 2:30.94 in the 200 breast to win by 2.2 seconds, setting pool and Academy records in the process. Her 2:21.50 in the 200 IM was 2.3 seconds better than second place. She completed her slate by swimming the fastest breaststroke on the second leg of the 200 medley relay. Gorinski now has 21 wins in 29 races this season, and it was the third time she’d won three events in a meet this year.

MALE DIVER OF THE WEEK
DAVID MAGARO, BUCKNELL So., Enola, Pa.
Magaro swept both the one- and three-meter diving events for the first time this season in Bucknell’s win Saturday over League rival Lehigh. His 268.73-point performance from the one-meter board was a season-best, and his 268.65 points in the three-meter dive was his second-highest accumulation of the season. Bucknell won 170-122.

FEMALE DIVER OF THE WEEK
KIM PILKA, COLGATE So., Great Falls, Va.
Pilka recorded her fifth sweep of the season, capturing the one-meter competition with 256.90 points and the three-meter showdown with 245.45 points. Her efforts helped the Raider women capture their fourth and fifth straight wins of the season over Binghamton and Vermont in a tri-meet in Vestal, N.Y.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

OLAF OLSON, NAVY Sr., Bainbridge Island, Wash.
Olson won the three-meter diving Saturday against Yale, posting a first-place effort of 382.58 points, 41 points ahead of his nearest competitor. He finished runner-up from the one-meter board with 348.38 points, 12 behind teammate and winner Hayden Jones.

CAREN GUYETT, COLGATE Sr., Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
Guyett won the 1000-yard free with a season-best 10:13.55 as Colgate swept Binghamton and Vermont in a tri-meet Saturday. She also tallied first-place finishes in the 200 fly and 200 breast.

MIKE NICHOLSON, BUCKNELL Fr., Chappaqua, N.Y.
Nicholson, last week’s Male Swimmer of the Week, posted another strong performance with first-place showings in the 200-yard fly and 200 breast against Lehigh. He posted the best time in the 200 IM as an exhibition swimmer with a clocking of 1:55.12.

ELIZABETH PORCELLIO, BUCKNELL So., Fairport, N.Y.
Porcellio was one of two Bison to win two events against Lehigh, capturing the 200-yard free and 200 breast. She swam the 200 IM as an exhibition, posting the fastest time in 2:10.46.

KRISTEN DESROSIERS, HOLY CROSS So., Gorham, Maine
Desrosiers posted wins in the 200-yard IM, 200 free and 100 fly to pace Holy Cross to its first-place showing at the Worcester City Championship over the weekend.

Patriot League Notebook

NAVY CRACKS TOP 25; ARMY GETS VOTES
Following the team’s 152-131 victory over Yale Saturday in Annapolis, the Navy men cracked the TYR/CollegeSwimming.com Top 25 this week, earning 34 points to claim the No. 25 spot. The Mids are five points behind No. 24 Iowa and 29 points away from 23rd-ranked Purdue. It’s the first time this season that any of the Patriot League’s swimming and diving teams has cracked a national top-25 poll this season. The League has had a few teams make appearances in CollegeSwimming.com’s mid-major poll during the year. In addition to the Navy men in the top 25, the Army men earned three points to appear in the category of others receiving votes.

REGULAR SEASON WINDING DOWN
The last few weeks have seen the schedule become the busiest it’s been since the New Year’s holiday, and after this weekend the events will ramp down as swimmers and divers prepare for the League championship meet beginning Feb. 17 at Bucknell. Bucknell hosts the Bison Invitational this weekend as a final tune-up for its swimmers and facility personnel before the championship, and student-athletes from American are scheduled to take part, adding a League flavor to the event. Army hosts a League tri-meet at West Point with Colgate and Lafayette coming to town Saturday. Holy Cross heads to Providence Saturday for a non-League tilt against the Friars, while Lehigh and Navy are idle until next weekend.

TICKETS ON SALE FOR LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Bucknell will host the Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championships Feb. 17-19 at Kinney Natatorium in Lewisburg, and tickets are now on sale. An all session pass, which gets you into the trials and finals on each of the three days, costs $35, while single trial passes are $6 and single final passes are $8. All tickets are available through the Bucknell ticket office at (570) 577-1000 or online at http://www.bucknell.edu/Boxoffice.xml.

HOFFER, DUKLETH HIT NCAA B-CUTS AGAINST ARMY
Navy’s Luke Hoffer and Steve Dukleth posted NCAA B-cut times last month in the Mids’ victory over Army, adding their names to the list of student-athletes who have reached that plateau already this season. Fellow Navy teammates Mac Anthony and Laura Gorinski had already captured NCAA B-cut clockings during the Nike Cup in Chapel Hill, N.C. in November. Hoffer, a freshman, is the only swimmer to eclipse the 2:00-mark in the 200-yard breaststroke with a 1:58.87 against the Black Knights, surpassing the NCAA B-cut line by over a full second. Meanwhile, Dukleth’s B-cut time game in the 200 fly, where he touched the wall in 1:47.67. Anthony recorded another B-cut mark in the 200 free with a 1:37.18 to win the event against Army, 0.17 seconds off his fastest time of the year in the event. Gorinski, who was on a tear to close 2010, won the 200 breast in a Navy and Patriot League-record 2:12.09, improving on the mark she’d already set earlier this season. Gorinski also posted another B-cut performance in the 100 breast in 1:02.05, which was nearly a second off her best time of the season in the event.

GORINSKI ADDS 2012 OLYMPIC TRIALS TO FUTURE SCHEDULE
Navy sophomore Laura Gorinski already hit two NCAA B-cut standards back in November at the Nike Cup in Chapel Hill, N.C. After a two-week respite for Thanksgiving, she was back it once again, accruing more B-cut times during competition in Columbus, Ohio in early December during the Short and Long Course National Championships. Gorinski outdid herself there, as posted four more times that surpassed the NCAA B-cut plateau in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events. During the long course portion of the meet in the 50-meter pool, Gorinski clocked a 1:11.55 in the 100-meter breast and a 2:32.20 in the 200-meter breast, qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in both events.

NAVY CHOSEN TO REPEAT AS MEN AND WOMEN’S CHAMPIONS
The United States Naval Academy has been selected to repeat as Patriot League champions in the League’s 2010-11 preseason poll, it was determined in voting conducted by head coaches and sports information directors who could not cast a ballot for their own squads. Navy claimed a maximum 98 points and 14 first-place votes in both the men and women’s polls. In the men’s voting, Bucknell captured 83 points and one first-place ballot, while Army followed closely with 76 points and one first-place vote. Lehigh finished fourth in the poll with 59 points, followed by Colgate (48), Lafayette (35), American (34) and Holy Cross (15). In the voting for the women’s poll, Bucknell also captured second place with 81 points and the remaining two first-place votes, while Colgate garnered 79 points for third. Sitting in fourth is Lehigh with 53, just ahead of fifth-place Army which received 52 points. American (39), Lafayette (31) and Holy Cross (15) rounded out the voting.

BUCKNELL TO HOST 2010-11 CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 2011 Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championships will take place Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 17-19, from the Kinney Natatorium on the campus of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. The schedules for all three days are the same, as trials will start at 10:30 a.m. while the finals are slated for 6 p.m.

Team Notebooks

AMERICAN Eleanor Clay registered three top-five finishes at the George Mason quadrangular meet Saturday which also featured Old Dominion and Army ... She took third in the 100 breast in 1:07.52 and third in the 200 breast with a clocking of 2:24.63 ... She finished fifth in the 400 IM in 4:43.10 ... Both the men and women finished 0-3 at Saturday’s meet ... The Eagles are back in the pool Saturday to compete at the Bison Invitational hosted by Bucknell ... It’s the team’s final scheduled competition before the League championship meet, also at Bucknell.

ARMY Sophomore Alyssa Tran earned three individual wins Friday at Drexel and added a win in the 100-yard fly Saturday at George Mason ... She took first in the 100 fly against the Dragons in 58.84, and improved her time to 57.74 against the Patriots ... She has won a team-high 23 individual races this season ... Senior diver Katie Woodhams was the runner-up from both boards against Drexel and swept the one- and three-meter events Saturday at George Mason ... Her highest point total of the weekend came Saturday (233.00) in Fairfax, Va. ... Army hosts League rivals Colgate and Lafayette Saturday at West Point for a tri-meet ... The Black Knights are also scheduled to send divers to the USA Winter Nationals Qualifying Meet in Iowa City beginning Sunday.

BUCKNELL Freshman Mike Nicholson won the 200 fly and 200 breast to help the Bison defeat Lehigh 170-122 Saturday in Lewisburg ... He also swam the 200 IM as an exhibition and posted the top time of 1:55.12 ... His winning time of 2:06.14 in the 200 breast was 4.72 better than second place ... Nicholson is undefeated in his last three meets ... Elizabeth Porcellio also won two events, the 200 free and 200 breast, and swam the 200 IM as an exhibition, where her time would’ve placed her first ... In addition to David Magaro’s sweep against the Mountain Hawks, junior Morgan Popple earned a split, winning the three-meter competition (226.05) and finishing runner-up from the one-meter board (208.73) ... Bucknell hosts the Bison Invitational Saturday.

COLGATE Caren Guyett took first in the 200-yard fly, 200 breast and 1,000 free as the Raiders defeated Binghamton 196-104 and Vermont 214-96 in Vestal, N.Y. Saturday ... It was the second straight week she won three events in a meet and the third time this season she’d accomplished that feat ... Her 10:13.55 in the 1,000 free was her season best by 15 seconds ... She was also a part of Colgate’s winning 400-yard free relay squad ... The men lost their seventh meet of the year as they competed against the Bearcats Saturday, suffering a 166-111 loss ... Costas Hadjipateras finished with two individual victories to lead the team ... Sophomore Kim Pilka won her fourth Female Diver of the Week nod of the season after sweeping the two events at the tri-meet ... It was her fifth sweep of the season, and she remains undefeated in 2011 ... Colgate heads to West Point for a tri-meet against Army and Lafayette Saturday.

HOLY CROSS Sophomore Kristen Desrosiers won three individual events and was part of three winning relay efforts as the Crusader women won the Worcester City Championship at the Hart Center Pool ... She was named Swimmer of the Meet and broke meet records in the 200 IM, 200 free and 100 fly, while being a part of two record-breaking relay teams ... Sophomore Brian Lyons won the 500 and 1,650 free as the men took second of three at the championship ... The Crusaders head to Providence Saturday for a dual meet against the Friars.

LAFAYETTE The Leopards suffered a setback last week and were swept at Stony Brook ... The Leopards combined for 10 first-place finishes in the meet, taking the top two spots in three of them ... Stephen McCormick and Adam Gill took first and second place, respectively, in the 500 free, with McCormick clocking a 4:55.98 and Gill a 4:56.48 ... In the 200 IM, Stephanie Zielinski and Laura Jordan finished 1-2. Zielinski posted a time of 2:17.67 while Jordan was behind her at 2:21.44 ... The Leopards head to West Point Saturday to battle Army and Colgate.

LEHIGH The Mountain Hawks were swept for the first time this season when both squads lost Saturday at Bucknell ... Freshman Meredith Bayer posted three individual wins, capturing the 100-yard backstroke in 1:01.26 and later added a win in the 200 back with a time of 2:10.36 ... Her third win came in the 100 fly with a time of 59.59 ... The men dropped their second straight meet since starting the season 8-0 ... Junior Chris Toth won the 1,650 yard freestyle in 16:22.80, while sophomore Tyler Lareau captured the win in the 100 back in 51.15 seconds ... The Mountain Hawks are idle this weekend and visit Penn State Feb. 5.

NAVY The Mids posted a sweep over Yale Saturday in Annapolis, with the men winning 152-131 and the women taking a 161-139 victory ... The meet was raced in meters ... Laura Gorinski won three individual events, including a victory in the 100 breast in 1:10.38 that was just .08 seconds shy of the NCAA B-cut ... Her biggest win was by 2.3 seconds in the 200 IM, where she clocked a 2:21.50 ... Mac Anthony was also a triple winner, posting career-best metric efforts in the 200 back (2:04.09) and 200 IM (2:05.00) ... Olaf Olson earned a split of the diving events, winning the three-meter and finishing behind teammate Hayden Jones from the one-meter board ... The women’s meet against Johns Hopkins Wednesday was postponed ... Navy is scheduled to send divers to the USA Winter Nationals Qualifying Meet starting Sunday ... The men’s next meet is Feb. 4 at Columbia.