Most Outstanding Swimmer Mohamed
Hussein |
Most Outstanding Diver Andrew
Eckhoff |
Coaches' Award Recipient Sandy Haible |
ORONO, Maine – The UMBC men's
swimming and diving team claimed its ninth America East title since
joining the conference in 2003-04, and 15th total conference
championship, Sunday evening at the Stanley M. Wallace Pool at the
University of Maine. The women placed second for a
second-straight year, finishing behind the University of New
Hampshire.
The men topped the standings with a meet record 1,075 points,
ahead of Binghamton (856) and host Maine (589). UNH won
its fifth conference title and first since 2006 with 858 points
while the Retrievers were just behind with 818.5
pts. Vermont (548), Maine (454.5), and Binghamton (417)
finished the women's team `scoring.
With the men's team title, the 11th under head coach Chad
Cradock, the Retrievers' staff of Cradock and his
assistants Chris Gibeau and Rob
Bellamy, in addition to diving coach Petar Trifonov,
earned the Coaching Staff of the Year Award. This is the
fourth time that Cradock and his staff have won the award in the
America East.
The Retrievers were led throughout the meet by America East Most
Outstanding Male Swimmer junior Mohamed Hussein (Cairo,
Egypt/Victory College) and America East Most Outstanding Male
Diver Andrew Eckhoff (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford), both
of whom repeated with the individual awards. Eckhoff won
both diving events for the second year in a row.
Hussein closed out his championship meet in style on Sunday by
winning the 200 backstroke in a conference, meet, pool, and school
record time of 1:45.45 for his third individual gold medal of the
weekend. He also anchored the 400 free relay to a win in
the final event of the meet. Junior Johan
Rohtla (Tallinn, Estonia/Tallinn Secondary Science) picked
up the silver medal in the back, while freshman Doug
McCord (Ewing, N.J./Pennington School) took sixth in the
finals.
Senior Pierre De
Waal (Pretoria, South Africa/Tuks Sport/Cleveland State)
equaled Hussein's three wins at the conference meet by finishing
his America East career by topping the 200 fly field with a pool
record and NCAA consideration time of
1:46.93. Senior Sandy
Haibel (Rockville, Md./Richard Montgomery) earned the
silver medal in the event and finished his four-year career by
winning the Coaches' Award for accumulating the most points over
the last four years at the championships.
In the first event of the night, sophomore Rob
Breen (Danvers, Mass./St. John's Prep) barely touched out
senior Alex
Moothart (Hopkinton, Mass./Hopkinton) for the gold in the
1,650 free with a personal-best time of
15:43.37. Junior Reed
Neuendorf (Blauvelt, N.Y./Tappan Zee) made it a clean
sweep of the top medals for the Retrievers by winning the bronze
medal.
Freshman Leo
Endres (Bamberg, Germany/Kaiser Heinrich) gave UMBC
another win on the final day by winning the 200 breaststroke in a
school and pool record time of
2:00.86. Classmate Daniel
Cano (Madrid, Spain/IES Ortega y Gasset) was just behind
at 2:01.52 and junior Patrick Husseon (Camp Springs, Md./DeMatha)
took the bronze.
In the only non-win of the night for UMBC, junior Evan
Carey (Grand Island, N.Y./Grand Island), senior Herol
Marjak (Harjumaa, Estonia/Tallinn Secondary Science), and
sophomore Lauri
Kaei(Harjumaa, Estonia/Tallinn Secondary Science) all earned
top-five finishes in the 100 free. Carey's time of 45.89
was a life-time best and earned him the silver medal.
With the diving events complete, sophomore Katie
Bean (Mechanicsville, Va./Atlee) was named the meet's Most
Outstanding Female Diver. Bean won the 1-meter event on
Friday after taking silver in the 3-meter competition on
Thursday.
On Sunday, senior Amy
Fay (Haverhill, Mass./Haverhill) started the night well
for the Retrievers by garnering the silver medal in the 1,650 free
to complete her meet with three medals after winning the 500 free
and placing third in the 200. Classmate Katie Powlen (Southborough, Mass./Algonquin
Regional) placed eighth in the mile event.
In the 200 back, junior Klara Pavelkova (Prague, Czech Republic/Gymnasium
Pripotocni) set a personal-best in the prelims with a time of
2:01.79, and followed it in the finals by winning the bronze
medal. Senior Elise Blaschke (Washington Township, N.J./Bishop
Eustace Prep) was just behind her teammate in fourth-place.
Junior Talor
Tadena (Orangevale, Calif./Bella Vista) earned the
Retrievers' only individual win of the night by taking the top spot
in the 100 free with a personal-best mark and second-fastest time
in UMBC history (50.83). Classmate Erika
Ronning (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township) finished
second with a time of 51.07 while Blaschke placed eighth.
A trio of Retrievers competed in the finals of the 200
breaststroke with sophomore Rebecca Pindral (Land O'Lakes,
Fla./Wiregrass Ranch) taking
fourth-place. Senior Claire Barron (Lowestoft, England/Benjamin
Britten/New Orleans) completed her career with a sixth-place
showing while sophomore Lexi
Coon (Camden, Del./Milford) took seventh.
In the final individual event of the day, seniors Jennifer Kotonias (Burtonsville, Md./Academy of
Holy Cross) and Tara Morrissette (Somerworth, N.H./Saint Thomas
Aquinas) finished third and fourth,
respectively. Following the meet, Morrissette was
awarded the America East Coaches' Award for accumulating the most
points of any female athlete over the past four championship
meets.
The Retrievers then finished off the four-day meet by sweeping
the 400 free relays. In the women's race, Tadena made a
stirring charge on the final leg to put UMBC past UNH by just
.01 For the men, Hussein pulled away from his Binghamton
counterpart to end the meet with a bang.
UMBC will now send swimmers and divers to the ECAC Championship
at Harvard University on the first weekend of March.
