Meet Results

BUFFALO – After sitting in fifth place following days one and two at the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Swimming & Diving Championships, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's swimming team made its move on the third and final day of the meet on Saturday at Erie Community College's Burt Flickinger Aquatic Center, finishing third in the final team standings with 481 points.
 
The Hawks found themselves locked in a back-and-forth battle throughout the evening session with SUNY Oneonta, with both teams gaining the upper hand in different events. Ultimately, the Red Dragons' performance in the 400 freestyle relay gave Oneonta a second-place final point total of 489.
 
SUNY Geneseo won the team title with 953 points, while Oneonta (second, 489), New Paltz (third, 481), SUNY Fredonia (fourth, 430), The College at Brockport (fifth, 420), SUNY Cortland (sixth, 362), SUNY Oswego (seventh, 170), SUNY Potsdam (eighth, 150) and Buffalo State (ninth, 137) rounded out the remainder of the standings.
 
Senior Kat Buyes (Wappingers Falls, N.Y./John Jay-East Fishkill) and sophomore Ann Fici (Hauppauge, N.Y./Hauppauge) swam the 1,650 freestyle during the evening timed-final heat, with Buyes placing fifth (18:14.86) and Fici finishing seventh (18:39.06). Senior Rachael Cummings (North Attleboro, Mass./North Attleboro) swam the event during the afternoon heats and ended up placing 11th overall (19:15.02).
 
Freshman Lindsay Feminella (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Joseph by-the-Sea) qualified for the championship final in the 200 backstroke and finished eighth (2:15.99), while juniors Casey O'Connor (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield) and Ella Graffin (Ithaca, N.Y./Ithaca) placed 10th (2:16.14) and 11th (2:16.50), respectively, coming out of the consolation final.
 
In the 100 freestyle, junior Cassidy Griger (Cooperstown, N.Y./Cooperstown Central) scored championship-final points with a sixth-place time of 53.78, while freshman Molly McCulloch (Rome, N.Y./Holland Patent) topped the consolation final field with a ninth-place standard of 53.97.
 
New Paltz had four different swimmers score in the 200 breaststroke, led by senior Samantha Granan (Hyde Park, N.Y./Franklin D. Roosevelt) and freshman Megan Joseph (Hauppauge, N.Y./Hauppauge) in the championship final. Granan finished fourth with a time of 2:28.18, while Joseph touched seventh at 2:31.08. Senior Colleen Stewart (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) and junior Krista VerMeersch (Newark, N.Y./Newark) swam in the consolation final heat and took 10th (2:32.40) and 13th (2:34.96), respectively.
 
In the final individual event of the meet, the 200 butterfly, juniors Maggie Heaton (New Milford, Conn./New Milford) and Kim Kallansrude (Muttontown, N.Y./Jericho) led the way by placing fifth (2:13.36) and seventh (2:14.31), respectively. Cummings made the consolation final in the event and ended up placing 16th (2:27.70).
 
New Paltz closed the meet with a fifth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay, as the foursome of Griger, O'Connor, Buyes and McCulloch charted a time of 3:36.96.
 
With no swimmers in reasonable range of being selected for nationals, the SUNYAC meet serves as the final competition for the Hawks in 2014-15. New Paltz went 6-1 in dual meets and placed third at the conference meet for the second year in a row.