Box Score

The quartet of senior Elliot Sequin, junior Matt Acciani, senior Elliot Sparkes and junior DJ Hogenkamp won the 400 freestyle relay, the last event of the three-day New York State Swimming and Diving Championship Meet, to give Union its first state crown since the Garnet won four in a row from 1994-95 through 1997-98.  Coupled with last weekend's women's state title, it marks the first time in the history of Union College swimming and diving that both teams brought home the gold in the same season.

 

"The meet came down to the last relay and we had to beat Alfred for the win," explained head coach Scott Felix.  We went 3:07.15 (an NCAA B cut) to touch them out at 3:08.37 (which was also an NCAA cut time).  I believe that it is the first time that the men's meet ever came down to the 400 Free Relay to decide the team title."

 

Most impressive is the fact that the foursome cut almost three and a half seconds off their preliminary time of 3:11.01. 

 

The Dutchmen won the hotly contested meet by scoring 1,115 points to edge Alfred, which totaled 1,100.50.  Hartwick was third in the 12-team event with 1,090 while Rensselaer took four with 1,030.50 points.

 

Union, which was in fourth place after Thursday's competition, went into the final day in third place trailing  Alfred by 42.50 points.

 

"It has to be one of the biggest comebacks in the history of the meet," said an excited Felix.  "We knew that Alfred, Hartwick, and RPI would be the teams to beat when it came down to in the end.  Our best day was Saturday and we were just trying to stay close to see if we could pull it out in the end.

 

"Things worked out real well and we just kept moving up in spots that we could and just started to catch and put pressure on Alfred and Hartwick.  They were two great teams and they were real tough.  I have a lot of respect for both of them because they concentrated on being at their best at this meet."

 

The Dutchmen also got a championship performance from its 800 yard freestyle team as Sparkes, sophomore Charles Kinnett, Hogenkamp and Sequin brought home the state title with a time of 7:00.13.

 

Individually, Sequin won state crows in 100 and 200 freestyle events while taking third in the 50 free.  His 200 time of 1:40.54 qualifies him for the NCAA meet and his 45.17 in the 100 shattered the previous championship (45.61) and association (45.55) standards.  The association record had been set by Union's Jeff Hoerle in 1997, which was also a Union College standard.  Sequin previously shared the championship record with Union's Kevin Makarowski.

 

Kinnett finished third in both the 500 and 1650 free and was fourth in the 400 IM while Hogenkamp took second in both the 100 and 200 backstroke and was sixth in the 100 butterfly.

 

"As a team it was the best finals effort that our team has had since I was named coach," said Felix.  "We moved to up in every spot to score more points in the finals." 

 UNION'S HIGHLIGHTS 

Men 400 Yard Freestyle Relay

  1 Union College Swimming  'A'                 3:11.01    3:07.15 B   
      
    1) Seguin, Elliot SR               2) Acciani, Matt JR              
    3) Sparkes, Andrew SR              4) Hogenkamp, DJ JR               
       21.66    45.45    22.53    48.39    22.16    46.73    21.71    46.58

 2 Alfred University  'A'                      3:10.11    3:08.37 B 
1) Martin, Kevin SR                2) Brown, Bill SR                
3) Striker, Brandon SO             4) Crowell, Alex JR              
     22.48    46.96    21.29    46.32    22.23    47.74    21.49    47.35

 

800 Yard Freestyle Relay

  1 Union College Swimming  'A'                 7:00.13                              

     1) Sparkes, Andrew SR              2) Kinnett, Charles SO           
     3) Hogenkamp, DJ JR                4) Seguin, Elliot SR             

200 Yard Freestyle

  1 Seguin, Elliot      SR Union                1:40.54 A                          

100 Yard Freestyle

  1 Seguin, Elliot      SR Union                  45.17ZA                     

50 Yard Freestyle

  3 Seguin, Elliot            SR Union                21.03 B

200 Freestyle Relay 

3 Union College Swimming  'A'                       1:25.02 B     

     1) Seguin, Elliot SR               2) Sparkes, Andrew SR            

     3) Acciani, Matt JR                4) Hogenkamp, DJ JR 

400 Yard Medley Relay

  4 Union College Swimming  'A'                       3:32.73       

     1) Hogenkamp, DJ JR             2) Bisogni, Adam FR              

     3) Phillips, Aaron JR              4) Seguin, Elliot SR       

200 Yard Medley Relay

  8 Union College Swimming  'A'                 1:41.02       

     1) Sparkes, Andrew SR              2) Bisogni, Adam FR              

     3) Phillips, Aaron JR              4) Rand, Drew SR

500  Yard Freestyle

3 Kinnett, Charles          SO Union                4:43.65

1650 Yard Freestyle

  3 Kinnett, Charles    SO Union               16:29.02 B 

400 Yard IM

  4 Kinnett, Charles    SO Union               4:15.70            
  6 Rand, Drew          SR Union               4:18.25        

200 Yard IM

  6 Rand, Drew                SR Union                2:00.16

100 Yard Butterfly

  6 Hogenkamp, DJ       JR Union                  52.40 

200 Yard Backstroke

  2 Hogenkamp, DJ       JR Union                1:53.86 B     

100 Yard Backstroke

  2 Hogenkamp, DJ       JR Union                  52.94
  5 Sparkes, Andrew     SR Union                  55.08       

100 Yard Breaststroke

  8 Acciani, Matt       JR Union                1:02.14       

200 Yard Breaststroke

  5 Canniff, Pat        SO Union                2:12.95            
  7 Hubbell, Shane      FR Union                2:17.98         

200 Yard Butterfly

  2 Phillips, Aaron     JR Union                1:55.94        

2005 Men's UNYSCSA Championships - 2/24/2005 to 2/26/2005

FINAL Team Rankings

1 UNION 1,115

2 Alfred 1,100 .50

3 Hartwick 1,090

4 RPI 1,030 .50

5 Ithaca 958 .50

6 RIT  844

7 Le Moyne 715

8 Clarkson 412

9 St. Lawrence 338

10 Utica College 301 .50

11 Nazareth 268

12 Vassar  233

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