Colgate, Lafayette vs. Army

WEST POINT, New York, January 31. THE Colgate men's swimming and diving team wrapped up the season by splitting decisions in a tri-meet, Saturday afternoon at Crandall Pool on the campus of the United States Military Academy. The Raiders downed Patriot League rival Lafayette 191-100, but fell to Army 185-102 in the double dual. Meanwhile, the Colgate women finished their season undefeated, triumphing over Lafayette and Army.

Colgate swept the top three spots in the men's 500 free as Vince Hostoffer (Highland Heights, Ohio) shaved five seconds off his personal best touching in 4:42.83 to win the event by nearly five seconds. Nick Amato (East Norwich, N.Y.) finished second at 4:47.71, just missing his career best, while Pat White (Stamford, Conn.) completed the sweep with a time of 4:54.49.

The Raiders' other individual first place effort came from Robert Rutkowski (Lititz, Pa.), who won the 100 fly with a time of 51.79.

With Army swimming exhibition, Casey Powers (New Canaan, Conn.) and George Bennitt (West Chester, Pa.) finished first and second against Lafayette in the 200 IM with times of 2:03.09 and 2:03.17 respectively.

Colgate earned first and second place points against Army and won the race versus Lafayette in the 200 free relay as Brian Kennedy (Summit, N.J.) , Henry Bottger (Weston, Conn.), Rutkowski, and Peter Coulson (Pittsburgh, Pa.) combined to record a time of 1:28.82 and outlasted Colgate's second team of Cameron Voell (Little Silver, N.J.), Teddy Perley (Harrison, N.Y.), Dan Lathrop (Westerly, R.I.), and White by .07 seconds.

The Raiders got two second place efforts out of Powers and Devon Healy (New Canaan, Conn.). Powers posted a season-best 1:54.56 to win the 200 fly, while Healy was edged by Army's Matt Leegan (2:09.17) in the 200 breast with a career best time of 2:09.74.

Dan Pulitano (Mountain Lakes, N.J.) finished third in the 200 back (2:02.41) to round out the top three performances for the Raiders.

Emily Murphy (Syracuse, N.Y.), Erin McGraw (Penfield, N.Y.), and Ashley Bottger (Weston, Conn.) were all triple winners as the Raiders downed Army 188-96 and defeated Lafayette 191-101.

Colgate claimed the top two places in six events and went one,two,three in three more races. The Raiders won every swimming event, except the final two. Colgate swam the 200 IM and 200 free relay races as exhibitions, but had the best times in those events as well.

Murphy, McGraw, and Erica Derlath (Garden City, N.Y.) led top three sweeps in the three events. Murphy swam a 1:05.47 to claim the 100 breast ahead of Courtney Callahan (Tarrytown, N.Y.) and Caitlin Curran (Alpharetta, Ga.), who swam times of 1:06.07 and 1:08.63. The following event, Derlath, Emily Kelly (Potomac, Md.), and Jenna Daly (Garden City, N.Y.) duplicated the feat in the 200 fly. Derlath won with a time of 2:07.09, while Kelly (2:09.45) and Daly (2:09.65) finished second and third respectively.

The final sweep came in the 100 fly as McGraw (55.06) won the event with Caren Guyett (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) and Sarah Button (Mendham, N.J.) finishing second and third with times of 55.29 and 58.04.

Colgate got off to a strong start in the opening event by claiming first and second in the 400 medley relay. Bev Walker (Marietta, Ga.), Murphy, McGraw and Bottger combined to swim a 3:50.06 to finish ahead of the Raiders' second team of Button, Curran, Lisa Marchi (Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Emily Peck (Brooktondale, N.Y.) which tallied a 3:58.36.

McGraw (1:50.43) and Marchi (1:55.93) finished one, two in the 200 free; Kelly (5:08.53) and Daly (5:08.81) placed first and second in the 500 free; Bottger (24.32) and Peck (24.44) claimed the top spots in the 50 free; Bottger (51.90) and Marchi (52.27) in the 100 free, while Curran (2:28.55) and Callahan (2:32.24) went one-two in the 200 breast.

Other first place efforts included Walker in the 100 back (58.70) and 200 back (2:10.71), and Guyett in the 1650 free (17:38.03).

Becky Fisher (Cooperstown, N.Y.) placed third in one-meter diving (196.90) and Kim Siembieda (Narbeth, Pa.) wrapped up top three efforts for Colgate in the 200 back (2:14.10).

The Raiders will take a couple weeks off before returning to action, February 19-21 when the Patriot League Championships will take place. The event will be hosted by Bucknell.

Special thanks to Colgate for contributing this report.

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