Stony Brook Men’s Swimming is in full swing Wednesday as the Seawolves travel to the Bronx to take on the Rams of Fordham and then travel back to SBU for a meet against the rival Maine Black Bears. This will be a dual-meet as the Women’s team will also face Fordham and Maine.
The Men’s team has had a rough go in the beginning of the season, narrowly losing to Army in the first meet of the season and Massachusetts in the third meet. In between, they placed second in the Husky Invitational and the Women placed third at the University of Connecticut.
The Women’s team is still looking for their first ‘W’ of the season as they have lost to Army, Massachusetts, and barely missing a win against BC.
Coach Dave Alexander is both proud of his teams, and confident that they will dominate the rest of the year the way they have dominated the individual races.
He looks for inspiration among his team leaders and for the teammates to find it within to take it upon themselves and be the best swimmers and divers that they can be.
For the men’s side, the team’s latest victory came against the Boston College Eagles in a home win on Oct. 26 here at SBU. Leading the way to the win were swimmers Lukasz Ochamnski and Julian Acevedo. Lukasz Ochamnski is a freshman who hails from Lodz, Poland.
During the past meet, Ochamnski set a new SBU record in the 1000-yard freestyle by finishing more than 40 seconds ahead of the next place swimmer with an outstanding time of 9:34.42.
Ochamnski would later take first place again in the 500-yard freestyle and again in the 200 IM, the individual medley.
Acevedo would show up in event 16, the one meter dive, where he dictated how the event should be won by finishing first in this event, and then finishing first in another event, the three meter dive. Julian Acevedo, a local from Long Island City, and is in his third year as a junior here at SBU.
Because of their outstanding efforts this past meet, Ochamnski and Acevedo won the America East Swimming and Diving Performer of the Week.
Helping round out the win for the men were Omer Ozcan, a sophomore from Brooklyn, Eric Gaffey, a freshman from Bohemia, New York, and Raphael Labour, a junior from New York City.
The women’s team narrowly missed a win in this meet as the Seawolves were defeated by the women’s Boston College swim team. The women hung tough and came close in many races. Maja Gudelj and Courtney Teague, proved just that, as the two finished first and second in the 50-yard freestyle.
Maja Gudelj then showed more fighting spirit and a willingness to not give in by placing first in the 100-yard freestyle. Gudelj is a freshman who comes from across the pond from her hometown of Split, Croatia.
Adrienne Policht, a freshman from Mississauga, Ontario, showed her own determination and grit by finishing in the 100-yard butterfly.
In trying to keep the score close, Jessica Peters of Colorado Springs, Colo., followed suit, picking up a first place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. Helping the team to fight back and a chance for a win was done by Anastasia Kiryushkina of Moscow, Russia.
The women’s team came up a little short with a score of 164-134, leaving the ladies hungry in search for their next win, which may be today or Saturday.
Come and cheer for the men’s and women’s teams on Saturday as they take on the Maine Black Bears over at the Sports Complex.
