New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz swimming programs started off the new year with two considerable performances by both the men's and women's teams as they faced off against State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) rival, SUNY Cortland. 

The SUNY New Paltz women's team won with a 138-120 point performance. Swimmers, Alex Kassian, Delilah Griger and Kelly Donlevy won first place in all of their individual events, helping the Hawks advance to the lead. The men's team fell short to Cortland 156-106, but still had some very noteworthy swims.  

"I am really excited about our performance all around today. We brought great energy and were able to throw down some great swims amid our heaviest training period. I thought the meet overall was fantastic," said SUNY New Paltz head coach, Matt Distler. "Cortland always has a strong team and I love the opportunity for our swimmers to race some of the best in the conference." 

The SUNY New Paltz's women's team started their day with a 200-yard medley relay victory, as the team of Griger, Kassian, Donlevy and sophomore Julia Iaboni came in first place with a final time of 1:55.82. The men's team placed third in the same event with Myles Dower, Venn Engstrom, Korey Barber and Steven Macaluso securing a time of 1:42.50. 

Griger won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:03.25 while veteran Hawk, Victoria Bogdanski, placed third with a 1:05.86. Engstrom and fellow first-year Luke Hoyt went 1-2 in the 100-yard breaststroke with times of 1:04.53 and 1:04.80, respectively. Kassian won the next event, the women's 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:12.23. 

"Our first home meet of the season went great, and we had amazing energy on deck," said junior captain Kelly Donlevy. "It was exciting to see the freshmen and sophomores finally get to race in our home pool." 

Both Donlevy and Macaluso edged out their competition in the sprint freestyle events, with Donlevy winning both the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle with times of 25.63 and 56.20, respectively. Macaluso dominated the 100-yard freestyle, placing first with a time of 50.68.   

Griger continued to sweep the backstroke events, securing first in the 200 with a time of 2:16.03. Kassian and junior Owen Rowlands placed first in the next two events, the men's, and women's 200-yard breaststroke, Kassian at a 2:39.29 and Rowlands at a 2:21.80, respectively. Donlevy turned in another first place finish in the women's 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:02.27.  

The hawks won the last two individual events of the night, with Kassian and Rowlands placing first in both the men's and women's 400-yard individual medley. Kassian touched at a time of 4:59.58 and Rowlands with a time of 4:35.26. Freshman Brandon Molina came in second in the same event, finishing with a time of 4:36.25.  

The Hawks concluded the meet with two solid second place finishes for both the men's and women's 200-yard freestyle relays. Barber, first-year Paul Caster, Engstrom and senior captain Leo Litovsky, came in at a time of 1:32.75. Iaboni, juniors Kirsten Giovaniello, Katie Kolar and Griger, came in at 1:48.19. 

SUNY New Paltz returns home for its senior meet against SUNY Oneonta on Feb. 5 at 1 p.m. This will be their last dual meet before the SUNYAC Championships in Buffalo, NY later that month. 

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