2008 Woodie Awards
Men's swimming and diving team falls short in final meet of season
Greg Hrinya
Issue date: 2/1/07 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 1
The Marist Red Foxes swimming and diving team's quest for a perfect season came to a halt in Baltimore on Saturday when it lost to UMBC 158-120.
The Retrievers from Baltimore took advantage of a short-handed Marist squad and lived up to their 5th seeded national ranking as Marist saw its record in dual meets finish at 9-1.
Despite the loss, Marist received a strong performance from junior Greg Jablonski, who was a multiple winner for the Foxes. Jablonski won the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:10.18 and had his personal best in the 200-yard Individual Medley in 1:55.86.
Marist Red Foxes coach Larry VanWagner said that Jablonki has performed extremely well for the team all season.
"Greg has been very consistent for us all season," VanWagner said. "His last two events have been two of the best performances in his career."
Nick Chevalier and Ralph Rienzo were the only other Marist swimmers that notched wins against UMBC.
Although Marist lost the chance to finish the season at a perfect 10-0, they were missing a number of key contributors and UMBC capitalized on that.
"I left 12 athletes at home because of disciplinary reasons for violating team rules," VanWagner said. "Even with a full squad, we could not live up to the depth that UMBC has, so the results were not very surprising."
The Red Foxes will now look to put the loss behind them as the team focuses on the MAAC championships, which will begin February 8 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Coach VanWagner said that the message to his team remains the same as it does every year when the team competes in the MAAC championships.
"The message always remains the same," VanWagner said. "We want to come out in first place, and it's hard when you have no other place to go, and we cannot improve on our past performances. We can only maintain that level."
Diving Coach Melanie Bolstad also has high hopes for her divers in the MAAC championships.
"We want to build on our performance from last year, which had us placing three divers in the top eight," Bolstad said. "We hope to have four of our divers finish in the top eight this year."
Bolstad has been impressed with her divers all year and Devon O'Nalty and Jesus Santos have led them.
"Devon has been very consistent this year and Jesus has taken on a lot of difficult dives," Bolstad said. "Mitchell Katz has also added to our team's depth and he posted an impressive win in the 1-meter dive against Seton Hall a few weeks ago."
After the MAAC championships, the Red Foxes will have one final test in the ECAC championships, which will be held in Boston beginning February 16th.
"The ECAC is another competitive test to further evaluate our team," VanWagner said. "It's an open competition that involves every conference from Maine to Virginia and features three times the competition."
The Retrievers from Baltimore took advantage of a short-handed Marist squad and lived up to their 5th seeded national ranking as Marist saw its record in dual meets finish at 9-1.
Despite the loss, Marist received a strong performance from junior Greg Jablonski, who was a multiple winner for the Foxes. Jablonski won the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:10.18 and had his personal best in the 200-yard Individual Medley in 1:55.86.
Marist Red Foxes coach Larry VanWagner said that Jablonki has performed extremely well for the team all season.
"Greg has been very consistent for us all season," VanWagner said. "His last two events have been two of the best performances in his career."
Nick Chevalier and Ralph Rienzo were the only other Marist swimmers that notched wins against UMBC.
Although Marist lost the chance to finish the season at a perfect 10-0, they were missing a number of key contributors and UMBC capitalized on that.
"I left 12 athletes at home because of disciplinary reasons for violating team rules," VanWagner said. "Even with a full squad, we could not live up to the depth that UMBC has, so the results were not very surprising."
The Red Foxes will now look to put the loss behind them as the team focuses on the MAAC championships, which will begin February 8 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Coach VanWagner said that the message to his team remains the same as it does every year when the team competes in the MAAC championships.
"The message always remains the same," VanWagner said. "We want to come out in first place, and it's hard when you have no other place to go, and we cannot improve on our past performances. We can only maintain that level."
Diving Coach Melanie Bolstad also has high hopes for her divers in the MAAC championships.
"We want to build on our performance from last year, which had us placing three divers in the top eight," Bolstad said. "We hope to have four of our divers finish in the top eight this year."
Bolstad has been impressed with her divers all year and Devon O'Nalty and Jesus Santos have led them.
"Devon has been very consistent this year and Jesus has taken on a lot of difficult dives," Bolstad said. "Mitchell Katz has also added to our team's depth and he posted an impressive win in the 1-meter dive against Seton Hall a few weeks ago."
After the MAAC championships, the Red Foxes will have one final test in the ECAC championships, which will be held in Boston beginning February 16th.
"The ECAC is another competitive test to further evaluate our team," VanWagner said. "It's an open competition that involves every conference from Maine to Virginia and features three times the competition."
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