Buffalo, NY – The State University of New York at New Paltz swimming team concluded the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championships Saturday, and earned another top-placing finisher in Barrett Celecki to highlight the final day of the four-day meet.

Celecki was a monster in the 1,650-yard freestyle, touching nearly 10 seconds faster than the second-place finisher. He clocked in with a time of 16 minutes, 3.44 seconds to collect gold in his final conference meet of his career. 

Freshman Ethan Bonney also swam a solid race in the event, following Celecki in fourth place after recording a time of 16:36.02.

"Some highlights, a couple of really impressive swims. Team record on the men's side in the 1,650 for Barrett… which is a 30-second lifetime best, just an absolute man swim," said Hawks coach Tom Eickelberg. "Two school records there, an NCAA B Cut [time] and school record as well, so really great for him."

Celecki joins junior Chelsea Angulas, who won the women's 100-yard backstroke Friday, as the two SUNY New Paltz swimming members to collect gold at the SUNYAC meet. They keep a 24-year old streak alive of having at least one Hawks member place first at the conference meet.

"Chelsea winning the 100 back [Friday] was a pretty significant thing [along with Barrett]. New Paltz has had someone win an event every year at a conference meet since 1995, so that is certainly something that we're glad to keep alive," Eickleberg said.

The two guided their respective Hawks teams to a pair of fourth place finishes at the event, as the women totaled 426 points for fourth behind SUNY Geneseo (1048), SUNY Cortland (531) and Oswego State (434), while the men compiled 327 points, also for fourth, behind SUNY Geneseo (951.5), Oswego State (526) and SUNY Cortland (525).

"Fourth on both sides, nail-biter on the women's side. We just lost to Oswego there and on the men's side, just beat out Oneonta by two points, so big meet for us," Eickleberg added.

Other impressive swims from Saturday included a third-place finish in the men's 400-yard freestyle relay. The team of Celecki, freshman Jared Finn, sophomore Nolan West and senior Joseph Galante recorded a time of 3:09.08 to beat out SUNY Cortland for bronze.

"Our men's 400 free relay came through with a medal in third. Both the other team's schools had to come close or beat their school records to get us, and just beating SUNY Cortland was a big swim as well," Eickleberg said.

On the women's side, the quartet of Angulas, and seniors Jaimie Kaefer, Katie Donlevy and Nicole Lee earned a second-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay, touching in a time of 3:32.25 behind SUNY Geneseo (3:29.69).

Angulas, Lee, Donlevy and sophomore Lindsay Kranitz then placed third in the women's 400 medley relay with a time of (3:56.76), just about a second behind second-place finishers SUNY Cortland (3:55.18), while SUNY Geneseo claimed first (3:53.17).

Donlevy and Angulas then claimed a pair of individual third-place finishes on the day. Donlevy touched the wall at 52.86 seconds in the 100 freestyle for bronze, while Angulas earned a time of 2:05.65 in the 200 backstroke. Kaefer placed fifth in the race (2:08.60), while sophomore Tessa Griger landed in seventh place.

"We had some really impressive efforts on the women's side," Eickleberg said. "Chelsea had a huge lifetime best, was third… the future looks bright. We have a lot of people graduating, but we have a lot of underclassmen really stepping up, absolutely some really great stuff there."

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