Championship Preview (PDF)
Championship Central
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The UMBC men look to claim their seventh straight title at the 2010 America East Swimming and Diving Championship on February 25-28 at Boston University. The Boston University women hope to capture their second straight title after dethroning the Retriever women at last year’s championship.
UMBC will need top performances from juniors Eric Jones (Gambrills, Md./Arundel) and Brad Reitz (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) and senior Matt Mattingly (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West) to defend its title. Jones is seeded second in the 200 free just .09 seconds behind first-seeded Boston U. senior Arik Seiler (Portland, Maine/Deering). Jones will also be a top competitor in the 100 free, ranked fourth. Reitz, two-time defending champion in the 200 fly, seeks to defend his title, seeded third in the event. Reitz, who is ranked fourth in the 100 fly, will look to reclaim his title after falling to Boston U. junior Matt Rickett (Portland, Maine/Deering) last year. Mattingly is seeded in the top five in four events and will look to capture titles in his final championship meet. In the diving events, freshman Andrew Eckhoff (Chelmsford, Mass./Chelmsford) hopes to capture a title in his first championship meet. Eckhoff is seeded second in both board events.
The Terriers, the preseason favorite to win the championship, will be tough competition for the Retriever squad. The Boston U. squad has a swimmer seeded first in 17 out of 18 events. Rickett, the 2009 Most Outstanding Swimmer, will look to defend his titles in the 50 free and 100 fly. In the 100 fly, he is seeded first, but in the 50 free he is third with a time of 20.76 behind sophomore teammates Daniel Kempf (Austin, Texas/Lyndon Banies Johnson) and Jackson Hill (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North), who are seeded first and second with times of 20.60 and 20.62, respectively. While Hill hopes to capture a title in the 50 free, he also seeks to claim a second straight title in the 100 free. However, Hill is again ranked second in the event behind Kempf with only .01 seconds separating the two competitors. Junior Bryon Kallert (New Milford, N.J./New Milford) is in good shape to capture a title for Boston U., seeded first in the 200 back, which he won last year. On the boards for the Terriers, junior Tanner Knorr (San Diego, Calif./Valhalla) will look to reclaim his three-meter diving title. Knorr is the first seed in both diving event with scores around fifty points better than his next competitor.
Binghamton University looks to do better than its third-place finish from last year under the leadership of sophomore Nolan Slesnick (Austin, Texas/LBJ-LASA), the 1650 free champion. Slesnick is seeded fourth in the 1650 heading into the championship. Freshman David Gleason (New York, N.Y./Robert Louis Stevenson) has also been a strong swimmer for the Bearcats all season and looks to challenge UMBC’s Jones and Boston U.’s Seiler for the 200 free title. In the diving events, senior Bob Nolte (Schenectady, N.Y./Schenectady) and freshman Anthony Foiles (Pomona, N.Y./North Rockland) are seeded third and fourth, respectively and look to earn points for the squad.
Stony Brook University freshman Ivan Kopas (Kikinda, Serbia/Technical School Kikinda) has been a top backstroke swimmer in his rookie season with the Seawolves and looks to be a major point earner for the squad. Kopas is seeded first in the 100 and second in the 200 back. Junior Lukasz Ochmanski (Lodz, Poland/Kosciuszko Memorial) has also been a top distance swimmer for Stony Brook and hopes to reclaim his championship title in the 1650 free and capture his first title in the 500 free, an event in which he is seeded fourth.
University of Maine will need the support of its underclassmen to improve on its fourth-place predicted finish. Sophomore Brian Landry (Yorktown, Va./Hampton Roads Academy) is a top swimmer in the 100 and 200 breast while freshman Yuri Chornobil (Rochester, N.Y./Brighton) is seeded eighth in a competitive 1650 free field.
On the women’s side, the Terriers hope to again fight off the Retrievers for the championship title. Senior Emily Munday (Butte, Mont./Butte) looks to claim her third straight 100 fly title in her final season. Munday is seeded first in the 100 fly as well as the 100 free. She is also the second seed in the 50 free behind junior teammate Maria McIntyre (Herndon, Va./Chantilly). McIntyre is also seeded second in the 100 back and will challenge two-time defending champion University of New Hampshire’s Amy Perrault (Kirkland Lake, Ontario/Ecole Catholique) for the title. Freshman Lauren Drake (Wuerzburg, Germany/Heidelberg) will also look to claim a title in her rookie season, seeded second in both the 200 free and the 200 IM. On the boards, freshman Melinda Matyas (Budapest, Hungary/Eotvos Jozsef Gimnazium) hopes to continue her dominant rookie season and sweep the diving events; however, junior teammate Sarah Colton (Wheatfield, N.Y./Niagara Wheatfield), seeded second in both of the events, will challenge Matyas for the title.
The Retrievers, edged out of first in the preseason poll by one point, pose an ominous threat to the Boston U. squad. Seniors Sam Maccherola (Woolford, Md./South Carroll/Tennessee), Tereza Kaplanova (Prague, Czech Republic/Gymnazium J.G. Jankovskeho) and Jennifer Esposito (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst/C.W. Post) have the potential to be major point earners for the team in their championship meet. Maccherola is the top seed in both the 200 and 500 free events. She leads the 500 free field by over five seconds. Top-seeded Kaplanova will battle Boston U.’s Drake for the 200 IM title. Kaplanova will also challenge a Terrier for first in the 200 breast. Esposito claimed the 200 fly title at last year’s meet and hopes to defend her title, seeded second in the event. She will also look to claim a title in the 100 fly, in which she is seeded third.
University of Vermont finished third last year, but will rely on 2009 titleholders seniors Colleen Clark (Unionville, Conn./Farmington) and Molly MacMillan (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks West) to earn major points as the two seek to defend their championship titles in the 200 and 500 free as well as the 1650 free, respectively. Clark set a championship record time in both the 200 and 500 free events last year. Clark hopes to claim her third straight 200 free title, seeded third in the event. She will also look to claim her second straight 500 free title, but Clark will face a tough field in which she is ranked 10th. MacMillian hopes to end her senior campaign with a third straight title in the 1650 free. She is ranked third heading into the championship meet. Junior Kate Weaver (South Burlington, Vt./South Burlington), who won the 200 back title in 2008, seeks to reclaim her title from New Hampshire’s Perrault and is the top seed in the event. In the diving events, sophomore Lauren Colby (Andover, Mass./Andover) is ranked fourth in the one meter and fifth in the three-meter dive.
New Hampshire returns to the championship as a strong squad, returning three of its title winners from last year’s meet. Perrault swept the back events last year and is the first seed in the 100 back and the third seed in the 200 back. Junior Allison Nahin (Hartland, Wisc./Arrowhead), who won the 100 breast, is seeded first. Nahin will have to fight off Boston U.’s Kristen Connors, who is only .05 seconds behind the top-ranked time, for the title. Sophomore Jessica Little (Barrie, Ontario/Barrie Central Collegiate Institute) seeks to claim her second 200 breast title. Little is seeded third in the event for the championship meet.
Sophomore Darcy Heuser (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville) will be a strong contender for the Stony Brook squad. Heuser is seeded 10th in the 1650 free. She also ranks within the top 15 in the 50 and 200 free. On the boards, junior Megan Furrer (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst) is a top contender in the one-meter dive. Furrer is ranked fifth.
Binghamton will depend on junior Amanda Ciccone (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) and freshman Tin Wai Siu (Hong Kong, China/S.T.F.A. Leung Kau Kui) to pick up top finishes for the squad. Ciccone is seeded fourth in the 200 free and fifth in the 200 IM. She is also within the top 10 in the 50 and 100 free as well as the 100 fly. In her rookie season, Siu will be a contender in both the 100 and 200 fly, ranked fifth and fourth, respectively. On the boards, sophomore Jenna Easton (Churchville, N.Y./Churchville-Chili) is ranked sixth in the three-meter dive.
Maine seeks to do better than seventh place and is in contention for a medal in the one-meter dive. Senior Samantha Graham (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) is seeded third in the diving event. In the pool, the Black Bears will need top swims from underclassmen sophomore Alicia Hahn (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth), ranked seventh in the 200 back, and freshman Jennifer Trodden (Reading, Mass./Reading Memorial), ranked eighth in the 200 breast.
The Championship meet will begin on Thursday, February 25 at 5 p.m. with the diving prelims. For the full meet schedule visit the swimming and diving Championship Central.