NEWBURGH, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College swimming teams returned from the Metropolitan Conference Championships with 11 new school records and a multitude of personal best times. The Knights finished 15th on the men’s side and 16th on the women’s side.
Sophomore
Enrique Naudy (Monroe, N.Y.) was the star of the meet on the men’s side, breaking three individual records and recording a pair of top ten finishes. Naudy finished seventh in the 200 yard backstroke (1:58.83) and eighth in the 200 yard individual medley with a record time of 1:59.90, set during the preliminary rounds. The sophomore also recorded an eleventh place finish in the 100 yard backstroke (54.38). Naudy led off the 800 yard freestyle relay with a record-setting 200 time (1:45.53) and also set a new mark in the 50 yard freestyle (22.02) while leading off the 200 freestyle relay.
Freshman
Brianna Perazella (Cheshire, Conn.) matched Naudy with three new individual event records. The rookie was twelfth in the 500 yard freestyle (5:22.37), twenty-sixth in the 200 yard individual medley (2:21.83), and fourteenth in the 200 yard freestyle (2:02.87). All three times were new Mount Saint Mary College records.
The Knights also made a fair amount of noise in the relays. The men’s team broke three school records while the women’s team broke two.
The men kicked off the meet with a record-setting performance in the 200 yard freestyle relay. Naudy teamed with senior
Jay Matushefske (Garnerville, N.Y.), senior
Stephen Ghostlaw (New Windsor, N.Y.), and junior
Brian Heitman (Ramsey, N.J.) to set a new mark of 1:34.29. The same relay also broke the school record in the 800 yard freestyle relay with a time of 7:45.04.
Junior
Dan Courtney (Suffern, N.Y.) joined Naudy, Matushefkse, and Heitman in the 200 medley relay. The foursome blew past the old school record with a time of 1:46.53.
On the women’s side, the same quartet of swimmers was responsible for both record-breaking performances. Perazella teamed with freshman
Kassie Kayal (Wayne, N.J.), freshman
Jamie Testa (Prospect, Conn.), and freshman
Megan Whelan (Greenville, N.Y.) to set new school bests in the 200 yard medley relay (2:03.60) and the 400 yard medley relay (4:32.57).
Ghostlaw and Heitman were the only other swimmers to record points at the meet for the Knights. Heitman recorded a sixteenth place finish in the 200 yard butterfly (2:10.31), while Ghostlaw finished nineteenth in the same event with a time of 2:10.95.
Naudy will continue the season for the Knights next weekend at the ECAC Open Championships. The sophomore will compete against the best swimmers from all divisions at the University of Pittsburgh. He’ll swim the 200 yard individual medley, the 200 yard freestyle, and the 200 yard backstroke.