The State University of New York at New Paltz swimming team will travel to Oneonta to compete against Hartwick College and King's College Saturday.
The meet is the first of the season set in traditional meet format for SUNY New Paltz. Last week, SUNY New Paltz participated in the unofficial Cortland Pumpkin Relays against the Red Dragons, Roberts Wesleyan College, Wells College and Marywood University and placed second, trailing behind SUNY Cortland 570-522 on the women's side and 614-510 on the men's side. The Red Dragons won most of the events, but SUNY New Paltz racked up its wealth of points by securing a myriad of second and third place finishes. 
After racing for the first time this season, SUNY New Paltz determined some weak points that made the difference between a first place and a second place finish. Other than working on prolonging its stamina and building its fitness back up, the team has also concentrated on minor details and stroke work.
"In practice this past week we've been doing a lot more technical stuff," said sophomore Natalia Giunta. "We've been working on our turns and our starts, definitely things that are going to benefit us during our races for the next few dual meets… all things that are going to help to motivate us and improve in the next couple weeks."
The King's Monarchs are joining the competition this season, whereas last year it was a battle of the Hawks. SUNY New Paltz came out victorious on the women's side (158-122), but the men suffered a loss (113-167).
Hartwick College has already had three meets this season: two invitationals and a dual meet. The men remain undefeated, while the women claimed two meet wins and one second place finish.
King's College participated in two meets this season; the men and women both finished fourth of five teams at the Schweikert Relays, but returned the next day to win their first dual meet against Cabrini University (126-79 women, 137-68 men).
"I think Hartwick is going to be super fun," said senior Rory Neal. "We're going to get up and race some very fast boys and girls. We'll come together, we'll try to win as many events as possible, try to do everything technically right and just try to get up and race as fast as we can."
SUNY New Paltz will face Hartwick College and the King's Monarchs Saturday at 1 p.m.
For everything #NPHawks including photos, video, recaps and highlights, be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Facebook and Instagram.
