The quartet of senior Elliot Sequin, junior Matt
Acciani, senior Elliot Sparkes and junior DJ Hogenkamp won
the 400 freestyle relay, the last event of the three-day New York State
Swimming and Diving Championship Meet, to give Union its first state crown
since the Garnet won four in a row from 1994-95 through 1997-98. Coupled with last weekend's women's state
title, it marks the first time in the history of Union College swimming and
diving that both teams brought home the gold in the same season.
“The meet
came down to the last relay and we had to beat Alfred for the win,” explained
head coach Scott Felix. We went
3:07.15 (an NCAA B cut) to touch them out at 3:08.37 (which was also an NCAA
cut time). I believe that it is the
first time that the men's meet ever came down to the 400 Free Relay to decide
the team title.”
Most impressive is the fact that the foursome
cut almost three and a half seconds off their preliminary time of 3:11.01.
The Dutchmen won the hotly contested meet by
scoring 1,115 points to edge Alfred, which totaled 1,100.50. Hartwick was third in the 12-team event with
1,090 while Rensselaer took four with 1,030.50 points.
Union, which was in fourth place after
Thursday's competition, went into the final day trailing Alfred by 42.50 points.
“It has to be one of the biggest comebacks in
the history of the meet,” said an excited Felix. “We knew that Alfred, Hartwick, and RPI would be the teams to
beat when it came down to in the end.
Our best day was Saturday and we were just trying to stay close to see
if we could pull it out in the end.
“Things worked out real well and we just kept
moving up in spots that we could and just started to catch and put pressure on
Alfred and Hartwick. They were two
great teams and they were real tough. I
have a lot of respect for both of them because they concentrated on being at
their best at this meet.”
The Dutchmen also got a championship
performance from its 800 yard freestyle team as Sparkes, sophomore Charles
Kinnett, Hogenkamp and Sequin brought home the state title with a time of
7:00.13.
Individually, Sequin won state crows in 100
and 200 freestyle events while taking third in the 50 free. His 200 time of 1:40.54 qualifies him for the
NCAA meet and his 45.17 in the 100 shattered the previous championship (45.61)
and association (45.55) standards. The
association record had been set by Union's Jeff Hoerle in 1997, which was also
a Union College standard. Sequin
previously shared the championship record with Union's Kevin Makarowski.
Kinnett finished third in both the 500 and
1650 free and was fourth in the 400 IM while Hogenkamp took second in both the
100 and 200 backstroke and was sixth in the 100 butterfly.
“As a team it was the best finals effort that
our team has had since I was named coach,” said Felix. “We moved to up in every spot to score more
points in the finals.”
UNION'S HIGHLIGHTS
Men 400 Yard Freestyle Relay
1 Union College
Swimming 'A' 3:11.01
3:07.15 B
1) Seguin,
Elliot SR 2) Acciani, Matt
JR
3)
Sparkes, Andrew SR 4)
Hogenkamp, DJ JR
21.66 45.45 22.53
48.39 22.16 46.73
21.71 46.58
2 Alfred
University 'A' 3:10.11 3:08.37 B
1) Martin, Kevin
SR 2) Brown, Bill SR
3) Striker,
Brandon SO 4) Crowell, Alex
JR
22.48 46.96
21.29 46.32 22.23
47.74 21.49 47.35
800 Yard Freestyle Relay
1 Union College Swimming 'A' 7:00.13
1) Sparkes,
Andrew SR 2) Kinnett,
Charles SO
3) Hogenkamp, DJ
JR 4) Seguin, Elliot
SR
200 Yard Freestyle
1 Seguin,
Elliot SR Union 1:40.54 A
100 Yard Freestyle
1 Seguin,
Elliot SR Union 45.17ZA
50 Yard Freestyle
3 Seguin, Elliot
SR
Union
21.03 B
200 Yard Freestyle Relay
3 Union College Swimming
'A'
1:25.02 B
1) Seguin, Elliot
SR
2) Sparkes, Andrew
SR
3) Acciani, Matt
JR
4) Hogenkamp, DJ JR
400 Yard Medley Relay
4 Union College Swimming
'A'
3:32.73
1) Hogenkamp, DJ
JR 2)
Bisogni, Adam
FR
3) Phillips, Aaron
JR
4) Seguin, Elliot
SR
200 Yard Medley Relay
8 Union College
Swimming 'A' 1:41.02
1) Sparkes,
Andrew SR 2) Bisogni, Adam
FR
3) Phillips,
Aaron JR 4) Rand, Drew SR
500 Yard Freestyle
3 Kinnett,
Charles SO
Union
4:43.65
1650 Yard Freestyle
3 Kinnett,
Charles SO Union 16:29.02 B
400 Yard IM
4 Kinnett,
Charles SO Union 4:15.70
6 Rand, Drew SR Union
4:18.25
200 Yard IM
6 Rand,
Drew
SR
Union
2:00.16
100 Yard Butterfly
6 Hogenkamp,
DJ JR Union 52.40
200 Yard Backstroke
2 Hogenkamp,
DJ JR Union 1:53.86 B
100 Yard Backstroke
2 Hogenkamp,
DJ JR Union 52.94
5 Sparkes,
Andrew SR Union 55.08
100 Yard Breaststroke
8 Acciani,
Matt JR Union 1:02.14
200 Yard Breaststroke
5 Canniff, Pat SO Union 2:12.95
7 Hubbell,
Shane FR Union 2:17.98
200 Yard Butterfly
2 Phillips,
Aaron JR Union 1:55.94
2005
Men's UNYSCSA Championships – 2/24/2005 to 2/26/2005
FINAL Team Rankings
1 UNION 1,115; 2 Alfred 1,100.50; 3 Hartwick
1,090; 4 RPI 1,030.50;
5 Ithaca 958 .50;
6 RIT 844; 7 Le Moyne 715; 8 Clarkson 412; 9 St.
Lawrence 338
10 Utica College 301.50; 11 Nazareth
268; 12 Vassar 233