(Day 1 Results) Buffalo, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz swimming team completed Day 1 of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championship meet at Burt Flickinger Center pool Wednesday.
 
The Hawks saw record times on the men's and women's sides, and some promising performances from their young underclassmen.
 
The men's 800-yard freestyle relay had one of the fastest times in school history after clocking in at 7 minutes, 3.66 seconds. The quartet, including seniors Barrett Celecki, Joseph Galante, Matthew Kessler and freshman Jared Finn, earned a third place standing behind SUNY Geneseo (6:51.17) and Oswego State (6:58.37). Finn earned the fastest split of the day for SUNY New Paltz, which Hawks coach Tom Eickelberg said was, "really, really promising."

On the women's side, the women's 800 freestyle relay team of seniors Jaimie Kaefer, Degen Mariniello, Whitney Knowlton-Wardle and freshman Grace Rocks placed fifth overall with a time of 8:09.61. Although the Hawks were disappointed in their standing, they still set a program record in the race.
 
"The women's relay, we had a couple lifetime best splits. We had some really nice swimming there," Eickelberg said. "Our women's two-free relay was also the fastest in school history and it's really nice to be disappointed in a historically good swim. That's where we were. We should have been faster. The girls were bummed. We were bummed. We were trying to go faster than that and tomorrow we have another crack at that."
 
Along with the two 800 freestyle relay's, diving events also took place Wednesday. Despite the only SUNYAC program without a diving program, SUNY New Paltz ended the day sixth on the women's side and third on the men's.
 
"We swam our young talent as much as we needed to and had a really nice showing," Eickleberg said. "We're rolling into Day 2 tomorrow with some big individual swims in the morning and some really fun efforts in the afternoon with our relays."
 
The SUNYAC Championships continues Thursday, starting at 10 a.m. For live results, click here.
 
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