By: by Sean Engel, Sports Information Director
Final Results THROGGS NECK, N.Y. – In its final tune-up for the Skyline Conference Championships next weekend, the Maritime men's and women's swimming and diving teams split their competition with the Queens Knights on Thursday evening from the Riesenberg Aquatic Center.
The men's team knocked off the Knights by a final mark of 128.5 to 95.5, while the women fell by the score of 133.5 to 98.5.
On the men's side, Maritime got off to a hot start with 15 points in the first event as the senior quartet of
Zach Haughn (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Prep),
Brendan Erskine (Maspeth, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy),
Daniel Hemmer (Springfield, Va./West Springfield) and
Collin McNamara (Somerville, N.J./St. Joseph-Metuchen) beat out the Privateer second team by two seconds. The second team was made up of junior
Matthew Cannon (Sparta, N.J./Sparta), sophomores
Craig Lyon (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) and
Charles Schnebel (Stony Brook, N.Y./Ward Melville), and freshman
Brian Brow (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial), and came in with a time of 1:48.93.
Rookie
Doug Russell (Oakdale, N.Y./Connetquot) netted Maritime its next win in the 200-Yard Freestyle, coming in with a time of 1:57.20. McNamara was then edged out by just over half of a second in the 50-Yard Freestyle for four points (22:94). Cannon collected another win for the Privateers as he sailed to a three-second win in the 200-Yard Individual Medley (2:16.62).
Hemmer scored Maritime's next win in the 100-Yard Butterfly with the lone sub-minute time in the pool (59.52). Haughn continued the string of success for the team as he picked up a win in the 100-Yard Backstroke (1:00.58), narrowly beating out Cannon (1:01.28). Erskine and Lyon finished in first and second in the 100-Yard Breaststroke to cap off the individual events for the night. Russell, Skerys, Brow and rookie
John Dean (Milton, Del./Cape Henlopen) ended the night with a second place draw in the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay.
Sophomore
Sam Dratch (Montgomery, N.Y./Valley Central) also was making his final dives of the season, and finished second in the 1-Meter Dive with a score of 103.90.
The women's squad opened up the night with a quick 15 points as Maritime opened up with a time of 2:14.76 in the 200-Yard Medley Relay that was comprised of seniors Mariel VanderLinden, Emma Crandall, Hayley Hobbs and freshman Abigail Granit. The second place quartet was made up of sophomores Alyssa Esposito and Kelsey Ireland, as well as rookies Sarah Soulagnet and Gabrielle Kempski.
Senior Christine McCormack was back in action in the 1,000-Yard Freestyle and recorded a time of 13:57.30 for a second place finish. Several events later, sophomore Danielle Leahy collected a second-place time of 28:42 in the 50-Yard Freestyle. McCormack then notched the second win of the night for the women's team as she won by six seconds in the 200-Yard Individual Medley (2:36.37).
In her first action of the spring semester, Hobbs picked up where she left off in the fall with another victory in the 100-Yard Butterfly, winning by just three-tenths of a second (1:04.67). Leahy then tied with a Queens swimmer in the 100-Yard Freestyle as the pair matched times of 1:04.40 as the pair split the first-place points.
VanderLinden collected a second place finish in the 100-Yard Backstroke (1:11.90). Maritime was unable to finish within the top-two of several of the next events, but capped off the night with a first-place finish in the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay as the team of VanderLinden, Granit, Hobbs and Leahy finished off with a time of 1:58.91 for 11 points.
Freshman Alexandra Schnabel was also in action for Maritime's diving events and finished with a pair of third place dives.
With the win the Maritime men's team finishes the season with an 8-1 overall record and a perfect 5-0 mark in Skyline action. The women's team fell to 4-6 on the year, including a 2-4 record in Skyline competition.
The teams will next compete in the Skyline Conference Championship Meet, hosted by Maritime next weekend on January 30-31, from the Riesenberg Aquatic Center. The Friday portion of the meet will begin at 6:30 p.m., with Saturday's events starting at 12 p.m.