Although the NYU men's and women's swimming and diving teams are entering the winter legs of their seasons, they showed on Jan. 16 that neither has any intentions of cooling off. In their first meets of 2008, both teams pummeled Springfield College, keeping their undefeated regular seasons intact.
The women moved to 9-0 with the victory, their third straight over UAA rival Springfield in head-to-head meetings. The two teams last saw each other at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Championship on Nov. 30, at which NYU finished first out of 15 teams. The Violets had not competed since, but showed no rust in their return to action.
Sophomore Patti Beck set the tone for NYU, winning the 200 IM and the 200 back with times of 2:14.04 and 2:12.31 respectively. She also anchored the 400 medley relay team that took first place with a time of 4:05.88. Freshman Chelsea Pfohl, sophomore Danielle Hildebrandt and junior Samantha Ashby preceded Beck in the race.
Also contributing to the Violets' smooth transition was freshman Alexandra Strzempko, whose time of 10:48.75 earned her first place in the 1,000 free, just ahead of sophomore Kelsey Dean (10:50.41). Strzempko also captured the 500 free in 5:18.46. Senior Janelle Szary shined in multiple events as well, winning the 50 free (25.51), the 100 free (56.23), and 400 free relay (3:46.94) alongside Pfohl, junior Caitlin Albrecht and senior captain Christine Hooper.
The men entered their contest having waited nearly two months to rebound from their second-place finish at the ECAC Division III Championship on Dec. 1, their last meet before the layoff and the only blemish on their record so far.
Returning to form didn't take long.
Junior Paul Hogan was outstanding for the Violets (7-0), winning both the 1,000 free in 9:57.12 and the 500 free in 4:51.45. Senior captain Brad Thornton was equally dominant, winning the 200 IM with a time of 2:00.20 and contributing to two winning relay teams: the 400 medley (3:37.92) with senior captain Matt Ferreira, senior Andrew Guyton and junior Andrew Lardiere; and the 400 free (3:13.19) with Lardiere, senior Chris Wolff and sophomore Eric Pcholinski.
NYU also received winning efforts from freshman Andrew King in the 200 free (1:48.82) and junior Eric Wang in the 200 fly (2:00.06).
The men are currently ranked 16th in the CSCAA/Collegeswimming.com Division III poll, an updated version of which will be released on Feb. 6. The women are ranked 18th in their respective poll.
Both teams will strive to remain undefeated on Jan. 26, when they host the College of New Jersey, which beat the men's team in the aforementioned ECAC Championship. The meet begins at 1 p.m. at the Palladium Athletic Facility.
Mason Felton-Reid is sports editor. E-mail him at mfeltonreid@nyunews.com.
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