Canisius College swimming and diving wrapped up their third
and final day of the MAAC Championship meet in Baltimore late this
afternoon, with the men finishing in seventh place with 268 points. The women's squad finished the meet in eighth place with 175.5 points. Both the men and
women's teams broke school records in the 400-yard freestyle relay to set the
pace for the day's events, finishing in 3:11.46 and 3:43.36, respectively as the Griffs wrapped up their final meet this season.
Contributing to the men's record-high 268 points, sophomore
Stephen Pochatko placed fourth in the 200-yard backstroke with his time of
1:54.58. Freshman Matt Moessinger
placed eighth in the 1650-yard freestyle race, earning a time of 16:38.86. Also
leading to the Griffs seventh place over Niagara (233.50) and Manhattan (94),
freshman Alex Pason took ninth place in the one-meter diving event, earning a
score of 168.7. Senior Kevin Ernst also contributed to the Griffs performance,
taking eighth place in the 200-yard butterfly event with his time of 1:57.62.
On the women's side, sophomore Erica Vitale set her fourth
record of the meet, racing to a ninth place finish in the 200-yard butterfly
with her record-breaking time of 2:08.56. The women's 200-yard freestyle relay
also broke a school record with their time of 1:42.13, led by sophomore Kara
Powalski, who broke the 50-yard freestyle record in the leadoff with a time of 25.41.
"This has been a great season, and a huge step forward for
our program," said head coach Scott Vanderzell. "The men were battling for
fifth place until the last two events, and the women's diving made a big
difference this year. Our improvements will continue with next year's
recruiting class, and I'm already looking forward to it."
Notes: The men's
268 points are the most ever in a MAAC Championship meet for the Golden
Griffins... In all, 51 lifetime-best times were achieved out of 72 total swims,
with 20 new school records...Eight records were broken by the women while 12
records were broken by the men... Sophomore Erica Vitale broke four of the eight (200-yard butterfly, 200-yard IM, 500-yard freestyle, 1000-yard freestyle)...Sophomore Stephen Pochatko set three of the 12 records (50-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke, 200-yard backstroke)...Other individual record-breakers include freshman Tyler Carver (200-yard breaststroke), senior Kevin Ernst (200-yard butterfly and 1000-yard freestyle) and sophomore Kara Powalski (50-yard freestyle).
