The State University of New York at New Paltz men's and women's swimming teams will compete in their final dual-meet of the season when they travel to Catskill Cup rival SUNY Oneonta on Saturday, Jan. 27.

"Oneonta has some really slippery, hard plastic blocks," Hawks freshman Graham Cono, who recently transferred from SUNY Oneonta, said. "I've been telling everyone to mentally prepare themselves for that. The walls are metal at their pool and that's another thing you have to be ready for. There are some guys on that team that are quick out of the gate, so you just have to be ready to race. We're really trying to build some momentum going into SUNYACs."

The Red Dragons currently hold a 15-9 edge in the Catskill Cup standings. The Hawks can pick up two points at the meet, as one point will be awarded to each winner on the men's and women's sides.

"We could definitely use more points towards the Catskill Cup and it helps to have two teams for that," Hawks head coach Tom Eickelberg said. "It's double the responsibility, but it would be great to get a point for us on both sides."

Last season, SUNY New Paltz was victorious against Oneonta on both sides as the men won by a score of 138-116 and the women by a 141-118 margin.

SUNY New Paltz sophomore Cooper Knapp broke the Elting Pool record in the 200-yard butterfly, the first time he ever swam the event, with a time of 1:55.56. Knapp was also part of the team's 400-yard freestyle relay squad, along with seniors Barrett Celecki and Caleb Treadwell and then-senior Jeff Pietkiewicz '17, that set a new Elting Pool record with a 3:10.60 mark.

Eickelberg hopes his teams will set a few more records in this season's installment.

"When I was at SUNY Cortland this was always a fun meet because we could always go for pool records," he said. "It's going to be cool walking in there and seeing a bunch of pool records that were set when I was coaching at Cortland. It would be really cool to see the Hawks take down some Red Dragon records, both Oneonta and Cortland."

The Hawks will see the Red Dragons again at the SUNYAC Championships from Feb. 22-24.

Both squads finished in third place in their last meet at the Tate Ramsden Invitational from Jan. 19-20. The Hawks put in a strong effort against Division I opponents Dartmouth College and UMass Amherst.

"Our last meet at Dartmouth was pretty tough for us because we were all really exhausted," SUNY New Paltz freshman Tessa Griger said. "But, we all really came together and tried our hardest and there were a couple of really good races and I think that prepared us for Oneonta this weekend."

Knapp was the highlight of the weekend, as he finished second in the 100-yard butterfly (51.98 seconds) and fourth in the 200 butterfly (1:54.28) marking a season best in the former event. His time in the 100 butterfly is currently the fourth-best in the SUNYAC. Knapp also finished third in the 100-yard backstroke (51.65) and 200-yard individual medley (1:54.53).