Feb. 22, 2004

Complete Results

Baltimore, MD - The Marist College men's swimming and diving team saw its streak of eight consectutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) titles snapped this evening as Rider University captured its first-ever MAAC Title, by just nine points. The Broncs scored 877 points, while the Red Foxes totalled 868 points for second place. Loyola came in third with 502 points, followed by Iona (443), Fairfield (371), Niagara (243), Saint Peter's (202) and Canisius (96).

Rookie Nick Chevalier continued to demonstrate his dominance of the distance events, running away from the field in the 1,650 freestyle. His winning time of 15:57 was a new school record, his second of the meet, and was his third individual gold of the championships.

The Red Foxes concluded the meet with a win as well, capturing the 400 yard freestyle relay in convincing fashion. Chevalier led the relay off, and was followed by Ray Ferranti, Jeff Paul and Matt Castillo, winning in a time of 3:06.64, three seconds ahead of runner up Rider.

Marist closed to within nine points after trailing by as many as 44 points in the final session. Castillo and Rob Dunn helped mount a charge for the Red Foxes in the 200 breaststroke, finishing first and second and after the 200 butterfly, Marist was within two points, but would get no closer.

Marist, which has never lost a MAAC dual meet, had won the first eight MAAC Championships in which it competed, beginning with the 1995 meet. The second place finish snaps a streak of nine straight conference titles for the men, including the 1994 MCSC crown.

The Red Foxes will finish the season Friday-Sunday, traveling to Pittsburgh, PA for the ECAC Championships. Marist finished third place at the meet a year ago, and was the runner-up the season prior,.