Men's Swimming & Diving | 2/14/2017 4:04:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT men's swimming and diving team will compete at the 2017 Upper New York State Collegiate Swimming Association (UNYSCSA) Championship from the Ithaca College Athletics and Events Center. The four-day meet begins on Wednesday, Feb. 15 and ends on Saturday, Feb. 18. Preliminary action begins each day at 10 a.m. with the finals getting underway at 6 p.m.
RIT enters the meet having finished the regular season with a 6-2-1 record in dual meets, while placing third at the Liberty League Championship. The Tigers will look to better last season's fifth place finish at the UNYSCSA Championship, which included two new school records.
Senior
Steven Paine (York, PA/Dallastown Area) is RIT's top sprinter with top times in the 50-yard freestyle (21.99 seconds), 100-free (48.44 seconds), and 200-free (1:46.90). Paine, a two-time RIT Male Athlete of the Week (Oct. 31 and Jan. 23) has a team-best 10 wins and 17 top-three finishes in 2016-17.
Classmates
Austin Hayes (Aurora, OH/Aurora) and
John O'Gorman (Yarmouth, ME/Yarmouth) will be looking for personal best times and are among RIT's most consistent performers. Hayes, RIT's leader in the 500-yard freestyle (4:55.76), has five wins and 18 top-three finishes this season, while O'Gorman, RIT's fastest performer in the 200-yard backstroke (2:01.11), has five wins and 17 top-three finishes.
Sophomore
Derek Rothrock (Ashburn, VA/Briar Woods) is RIT's top performer in the backstroke with times of 25.18 seconds in the 50-yard event and 54.56 in the 100-back. He has five wins, five second place finishes, and five third place finishes this season.
Joe Wang (Framingham, MA/Framingham) and Will Seifried are among RIT's best distance freestyle swimmers. Wang has a top time of 10:25.89 in the 1,000-yard freestyle and covered the 1,650 freestyle in 18:04.95. He has 15 top-three finishes and is also the team leader in the 400-yard individual medley (4:36.04). Seifried is right behind in the 400-individual medley (4:36.68) and has RIT's best time in the 100-yard butterfly (2:04.80). Seifried also has 15 top-three finishes in 2016-17.
Shawn Nevers (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Memorial) is RIT's leader in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:01.08), while
John Stelmack (Toccoa, GA/Stephens County) (2:18.60) has the fastest time in the 200-breaststroke.
Daniel Yuen-Schat (Honolulu, HI/Kaiser) is RIT's leader in the 100-yard butterfly (55.28 seconds), while Zach Ward has the top time in the 200-yard individual medley (2:04.09). Nick Genovese,
Carl Schlehr (Maineville, OH/Kings),
Dennis Zhou (Antwerp, NY/Indian River), and
Scott Brink (Quincy, MA/Boston College ) will also look to contribute at the state meet.
As always, RIT's relay teams will be counted on to excel with each school record in jeopardy.
On the diving board,
Ben Hamilton (Addison, NY/Addison) and
Alex Dieroff (Syracuse, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt), along with
Chase Van Duyne (Auburn, NY/Auburn) and
Brian Cushman (El Cajon, CA/Grossmont) will look to contribute for the Tigers. Dieroff has seven wins and 15 top-three finishes for RIT this season, while Hamilton has 16 top-three finishes. Dieroff was the RIT Male Athlete of the Week on Oct. 24. He has RIT's best scores in the 3-meter six dive and both 1- and 3-meter 11 dive events.
The Tigers will have several student-athletes in the mix for NCAA Championship berths. The NCAA Championship will take place from March 22-25 in Shenendehowa, Texas.
