The State University of New York at New Paltz swimming team prepares to close out its dual meet season with a home win against Catskill Cup rival SUNY Oneonta Saturday.
 
"We expect to have some pretty fast swims. We really want to lock in some of the important things that we've been working on," said Hawks senior Nicole Lee. "We've been maintaining some strength in the weight room. We want to make sure that that work is paying off and really just fixing any type of technical work that needs to be resolved for our SUNYAC championship meet in February."
 
The Catskill Cup series officially began during the 2015-16 academic year after years of intense competitiveness between the two SUNY schools. Named after the Mountain range that separates the universities, the competition awards two points for every regular season dual contest win, one point for every regular season tie, and two points for the team that places higher at the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) championships across all sports programs that both schools share.
 
Although the Red Dragons collected the Cup in the 2017-2018 academic year, SUNY New Paltz currently leads, 15-5 after the fall sports season was completed. The Hawks swimmers hope to add four more points to the score through wins on both the men's and women's sides, continuing the success that they saw in the previous season.
 
SUNY New Paltz beat out SUNY Oneonta in its own pool last season, 112-91 on the women's side and 108.5-96.5 on the men's, breaking six of the Red Dragons' records in the process, four of which are held by returning swimmers. Senior Jaimie Kaefer broke the 200-yard freestyle record with a time of 1 minute 58.57 seconds, which was previously held by former Hawk Cassidy Griger '16. Junior Chelsea Angulas set a new record in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.58) and was a member of the record-breaking 200-yard medley relay comprised of senior Katie Donlevy and graduates Megan Joseph  and Molly McCulloch (1:49.23) as well as the record-setting 200-yard freestyle relay of junior Sarah Crespo, senior Nicole Lee and former teammate Kaleigh O'Halloran (1:42.58).
 
SUNY New Paltz expects to continue its legacy of success against SUNY Oneonta by relying on the hard work its has put in during intercession. As the team approaches SUNYACs, the Hawks have not only put emphasis on their fitness, but focused on their mental training as well.
 
"For the past few weeks, we've had 17 days straight [of] a lot of really hard high intensity practices. There's been doubles, hell, we had a triple, but I think the most important thing we've done is the emotional and the mental training that we've been doing," said SUNY New Paltz sophomore Graham Cono. "You could throw a hard set at a lot of teams and generally people will do it, but we've been talking a lot about the sacrifices we make as a whole and as a team and the experience we have together that when you invest yourself in other people's success you in turn see success and we're forming something that's bigger than ourselves and racing for things that are more than ourselves and that goes beyond any hard set."  
The meet will be the Hawks' second SUNYAC dual meet of the season, the first of which was a tough loss against SUNY Cortland on both the women and men's sides, 118-141 and 95-167, respectively. SUNY New Paltz's confidence was re-ignited after an easy win against SUNY Purchase in which the score was held from being kept only a quarter way into the meet.
 
Other than having an opportunity to gain points toward the Catskill Cup and to win their final dual meet of the season, the Hawks also look forward to celebrating their graduating seniors before the competition begins. Lee, Kaefer, Donlevy, Whitney Knowlton-Wardle, Degen Mariniello, Rory Neal, Joseph Galante, Yaya Toure, Matthew Kessler and Barrett Celecki will be recognized for the dedication and miles they have poured into the pool throughout their careers, most of which have been for four years.
 
"Our last dual meet against Oneonta is also our senior meet," Lee said. "This is a tradition that the New Paltz swim program has brought down for many years. Usually the head coach, in this case Tom Eickelberg, honors the seniors, says a little bit about each person and it's nice for the seniors to be recognized."

The Hawks will face off the Red Dragons in Elting Pool Saturday at 1 p.m. To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on Twitter at @nphawks,Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.