Men's Swimming & Diving | 3/23/2017 10:44:00 AM

ROCHESTER, NY — The RIT men's swimming and diving team enjoyed a successful 2016-17 season, finishing third in the Liberty League Championships and sixth overall at the New York State Collegiate Swimming Association (UNYSCSA) Championships. The Tigers recorded six wins in dual meets for the third straight season.
 
Seniors Austin Hayes (Aurora, OH/Aurora), John O'Gorman (Yarmouth, ME/Yarmouth), and Steven Paine (York, PA/Dallastown Area) rounded out their careers at RIT in 2016-17. O'Gorman, Paine, and Ben Hamilton (Addison, NY/Addison) provided leadership as team captains in 2016-17, and Paine leaves RIT with his name in the school record books.
 
Paine, who was a part of the 400-freestyle relay team to break the RIT record in 2015-16, re-broke the school record in the same event in 2016-17. Paine, Derek Rothrock (Ashburn, VA/Briar Woods), Shawn Nevers (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Memorial), and Carl Schlehr (Maineville, OH/Kings) finished with a time of 3:30.93 on Feb. 16 on day two of the UNYSCSA Championships. Paine was RIT's top sprinter with top times in the 100-free (47.39 seconds) and 200-free (1:45.91), and had the second-best time in the 50-yard freestyle, at 21.67 seconds. Paine, a two-time RIT Male Athlete of the Week (Oct. 31 and Jan. 23) finished with a team-best 10 wins and 17 top-three finishes in 2016-17. He finished in the top-15 three times in the state meet, placing eighth in the 100-yard freestyle, 13th in the 200-yard freestyle, and 15th in the 50-yard freestyle.
 
Classmates Hayes and O'Gorman were among RIT's most consistent performers in 2016-17. Hayes, RIT's leader in the 500-yard freestyle (4:52.29), had five wins and 18 top-three finishes, while O'Gorman, RIT's fastest performer in the 200-yard backstroke (1:58.80), finished his senior year with five wins and 17 top-three finishes.
 
Rothrock, a sophomore, was RIT's top performer in the backstroke, with times of 25.18 seconds in the 50-yard event and 53.71 in the 100-back. He had five wins, five second place finishes, and five third place finishes this season, and was 12th in the 100-back at the UNYSCSA Championships.
 
Joe Wang (Framingham, MA/Framingham) and Wil Seifried (Springfield, PA/Springfield) finished 2016-17 among RIT's best distance freestyle swimmers. Wang recorded a top time of 10:25.89 in the 1,000-yard freestyle and covered the 1,650 freestyle in 17:39.14. He had 15 top-three finishes and also had the team's second best time in the 400-yard individual medley (4:36.04). Seifried was right behind in the 400-individual medley (4:36.68) and has RIT's best time in the 200-yard butterfly (1:57.02). Seifried also had 15 top-three finishes in 2016-17.
 
Several others pitched in with team-best marks in 2016-17. Nevers, who finished fourth at the state meet in the 100-yard breaststroke, was RIT's leader in the event (58.17), while John Stelmack (Toccoa, GA/Stephens County) had the fastest time in the 200-breaststroke (2:10.50) and 400-yard individual medley (4:21.66). Stelmack finished 11th in states in the 200-breast. Schlehr led RIT in the 100-yard butterfly (53.07 seconds) and was ninth in the 200-yard individual medley at states, while Zachary Ward (Kennett Square, PA/Unionville) had the top time in the 200-yard individual medley (2:04.09). Nicholas Genovese (Lincoln, MA/Lincoln-Sudbury) also topped the team in the 50-yard freestyle, with a time of 21.56, and placed ninth in the 50-yard freestyle at states (1:57.46).
 
Daniel Yuen-Schat (Honolulu, HI/Kaiser), Dennis Zhou (Antwerp, NY/Indian River), and Scott Brink (Quincy, MA/Boston College ) also contributed for the Tigers with top times. Yuen-Schat finished second on the team in the 100-yard (55.28 seconds), and 200-yard (2:05.98) butterfly, and 200-yard individual medley (2:05.50). Zhou had the second-best time on RIT in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:17.15), and third in the 100-breaststroke (1:02.98). Brink had a fourth-best 28.09 in the 50-yard backstroke, along with a fifth-best 56.30 in the 100-back.
 
Juniors Jason Cook (Henrietta, NY/Rush-Henrietta), Ryan Leeson (East Aurora, NY/Iroquois), and sophomores Foster West (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Walter Panas) and Andrew Rearson (Dresher, PA/Upper Dublin) also added top-five finishes for the Tigers. Cook was second on the team in the 100-freestyle (49.28 seconds), third in the 200-free (1:50.62), and seventh in the 50-free (22.71 seconds). Leeson was fifth in the 100-yard butterfly (58.38 seconds), West was fifth in the 50-yard backstroke (28.30 seconds), and Rearson was third in the 1,650-yard freestyle (18:34.72).
 
Freshmen Adam Reitz (Hilton, NY/Hilton) and Owen Siebert (Rochester, NY/School of the Arts) finished with strong first years at RIT. Siebert was second on the team in the 1,650-yard freestyle (18:14.44), third in the 100-yard butterfly (58.17 seconds), fourth in the 200-butterfly (2:11.82), and fifth in the 500-freestyle (5:14.52). Reitz had the third-best time on the squad in the 500-yard freestyle (5:11.27) and was fifth in the 1,000-free (10:45.19).
 
The Tigers received depth in 2016-17 from juniors Ryan Facchine (Fairview, PA/Fairview), Lucas Fitzgerald (Weedsport, NY/Weedsport) and Dom Ricchio (Racine, WI/Case), along with first-year swimmers Tyler Allen (Newark, NY/Newark), James Antonelli (Clarendon Hills, IL/Hillsdale Central), Nicholas Graca (Freetown, MA/Apponeqquet), Nicholas Trumper (Richmond, VT/Mount Mansfield Union), and Mark Truskinovsky (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville North).
 
Facchine, the Liberty League Swimmer of the Week on Nov. 21, was fifth on the team in the 50-yard (22.24 seconds) and 100-yard freestyle (49.04 seconds). Allen was third in the 100-yard (48.82) and fourth in the 200-yard (1:48.53), and fourth in the 500-yard (5:00.09) freestyle events. Trumper finished the year with a sixth-best time on the team in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:34.87). Hall also added a fourth-best time on the team in the 100-yard (56.01) and 200-yard (2:06.04) butterfly.
 
On the diving board, Ben Hamilton (Addison, NY/Addison) and Alex Dieroff (Syracuse, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt) led the way for the Tigers in 2016-17, while Chase Van Duyne (Auburn, NY/Auburn), Brian Cushman (El Cajon, CA/Grossmont), and Trenton Whitman (Titusville, PA/Titusville) added key contributions for the Tigers. Dieroff had seven wins and 15 top-three finishes for RIT in 2016-17, while Hamilton finished with 16 top-three finishes. Dieroff was the RIT Male Athlete of the Week on Oct. 24. In the state meet, Dieroff was second in the 1-meter 11 dive and placed fourth in the 3-meter 11 dive. He recorded RIT's best scores in the 3-meter six dive (281.10) and both 1-meter (489.10) and 3-meter (508.85) 11 dive events. Hamilton, a junior, finished the season with RIT's top score in the 1-meter six dive (271.50), and placed fifth at the state meet in the 3-meter 11 dive, with a score of 447.95.
 
RIT excelled in the classroom once again during the 2016-17 season, with 13 student athletes —- Dieroff, Facchine, Hall, Hamilton, Hayes, Nevers, O'Gorman, Rearson, Rothrock, Seifried, Stelmack, Van Duyne, and West — receiving Liberty League All-Academic Team honors, the most of any RIT team during the 2016-17 winter season.

Despite the loss of seniors Hayes, O'Gorman, and Paine, the Tigers will work towards a Liberty League and UNYSCSA Championship title in 2017-18, with a strong young nucleus returning.