Pioneers Excited About 2nd Semester After Big Weekend at Fredonia

The Alfred State swimming and diving team closed out the 2018 portion of their season with a stellar performance at the three-day Fredonia Invitational. In total the team had 134 season best times, 75 personal best times, and broke 13 school records.

Jessie LaRue (Livonia), Sarah Stevens (Wellsville), and Kathryn Lewis (Niagara Wheatfield) have led the way for the women's team during the 1st semester of the season. 

• At Fredonia, LaRue set new school records in the 200 free (2:02.97), the 100 back (1:03.64), the 50 free (25.76), the 200 back (2:14.60), and the 100 free (56.08). She led the whole squad by scoring 74 points in the event.
• Stevens paced the divers with a 3rd place finish in the 3m 11-dive competition with 276.70 points and a 4th place finish in the 1m 11-dive competition with 286.95 points. She was also 6th in the 200 breast (2:51.28) and was part of a three relays. She scored 66 points in the event.
• Lewis was very competitive in the distance events. She finished 4th in the 1650 free (19:35.47), 7th in the 500 free (5:33.48), and 8th in the 200 free (2:03.38).

Elizabeth Drake (Lansing) scored 50 points for the team while Hannah Snayczuk (Machias/Pioneer) scored 40. As a team the Pioneers scored 523 points

Tim Olin (Perry) and Ethan Dale (Lock Haven) continued to lead the men's team with record breaking performances at Fredonia.

• Olin set two new school records and was the male top point earner for the team with 69 points. He set a new record in the 100 back (55.95) with a 4th place finish and set a new mark in the 50 free (22.75) with a 7th place finish. He was also 6th in the 200 back (2:04.85). 
• Dale earned a 4th place finish in the 200 breast and set a new school record in the event with a time of 2:13.04. He was also 5th in the 400 IM (4:22.33), and 7th in the 100 breast (1:01.91). He scored 65 points on the weekend.

Austin Eckrich (Churchville Chili) was 10th in the 500 free and set a new school record (5:08.96). He also 7th in the 1650 free (18:15.36) and helped earn points on the distance relay teams. Nate Miller (Ganada) scored 46 points on the weekend, Ryan McDowell (Gananda) scored 37, and Anthony Kahwathy (Jefferson Township, NJ) scored 33.5. As a team the Pioneers scored 417 points.

After the Christmas break, the team will reconvene and head to Orlando, FL for their annual training trip. The team will hope to pick up from the success of the Fredonia Invitational and begin the path towards individual and team success at the AMCC Championships in the middle of February.

Sophomore sport management major Payton Armstrong documented some of the three-day trip to the Fredonia Invitational. Below are the day-to-day activities during the event.

Thursday - Day 1: Got to Fredonia at 10 am, warmed up, meet started at 12 and lasted until 2:30, after that we came back to the hotel and ate lunch. We left for finals at 6:15pm for warm ups and it started at 8pm, left the pool at about 10:00pm and came back to the hotel for dinner and sleep.

Friday - Day 2: We had team breakfast at the hotel at 8:30am and left for the meet at 9:15am. Warm ups started at 10:00am and prelims started at 11am. Prelims ended at 12:00pm and we had a break from 1pm to 4:15pm. Finals started at 6pm and we got finished at 8:30pm. We just ate dinner and now everyone's off to bed!

Saturday - Day 3: Prelims started at 10am and ended around 1:30pm. We got back to the hotel to get our stuff at 2:00pm. Finals started at 6:00pm and ended at 7:30pm. We are on the bus on our way back to Alfred now!