BUFFALO, N.Y. -
The Marist men's swimming and diving team stands in second place after the
first day of competition at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC)
Championship at the Burt Flickinger Athletic Center on the campus of Erie
Community College. Freshmen Jacob Baker
(Shavertown, Pa.) and John Spitzer (Fairport, N.Y.) were the top individual
finishers for the Red Foxes on the day with third place finishes.
The 200-yd freestyle team of junior Tyler Ferraro
(Southbury, Conn.), sophomores Alex Lombardi (Branford, Conn.) and Nick
Spinella (Franklin Square, N.Y.) and Spitzer led off the Championship with a
strong effort. The quartet finished in second place with a time of 1:23.52.
Coming into the evening session of the 1-meter board as the
fourth seed, Baker turned in a 266.30 point Championship Final performance. He
was able to overtake Canisius' Eddie Quarantillo for third place and nearly
caught up to Rider's Brendan Cavallaro's second place total of 274.65. Teammate
Sean Molloy (Slingerlands, N.Y.) earned fifth place points for the Red Foxes
with a 6-dive total of 251.20.
Spitzer's team-best result occurred in the 50-yd freestyle.
After a dramatic tie-breaking race-off at the conclusion of the morning's
prelims saw Spitzer earn the eighth and final qualifying spot in the evening's Championship
Final, the freshman made sure that his effort wasn't for naught. In the Final,
he sprinted to a time of 21.08 and a third place finish. Lombardi joined him in
the A Final and sprinted to an eighth place time of 21.74.
In the 500-yd freestyle A Final, freshman Bill Drennen
(Collegeville, Pa.) had a performance of note, as his fourth-place time of
4:35.86 is the third fastest in Marist history. Junior Stephen Miller
(Downington, Pa.) led a group of four Red Foxes, who competed and scored points
for Marist in the Consolation Final. Miller finished in second place, just .03
shy of the final's winner Sean Wurster's time of 4:41.83.
Much like the 50-yd freestyle, the 200-yd IM Championship
Final saw two Red Foxes competing. Freshman Jason Ruddy (Lake Katrine, N.Y.)
finished in fifth place with a time of 1:53.50, while Spinella was seventh at
1:54.91. Ruddy's prelim time of 1:53.22, places him number five all-time in
school history.
The 400-yd. medley relay team of freshman Evan Uy
(Kailua-Kona, Hawaii), Spinella, Ruddy and Spitzer closed out the evening's
events with a fifth place finish of 3:26.70.
After the first day of the championship, Rider paces the
field with 217. Marist trails the Broncs by 67 points and is ahead of the third
place Canisius Golden Griffins by 25.
The 2012 MAAC Championship will continue on Friday morning
at 10 a.m., with the qualifying heats of events 17-26. The finals for the same
events will be held Friday evening, with the first race scheduled to begin at 6
p.m.
Men's Standings (Through Event 12) 1. Rider - 217. 2. Marist - 150. 3. Canisius - 125. 4.
Loyola - 123. 5. Saint Peter's - 96. 6. Iona - 78. 7. Fairfield - 74. 8.
Manhattan - 62. 9. Niagara - 47.
