47 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(01/29/13 5:00pm)
Both the men’s and women’s swim teams at the College knew early on that some of their toughest competition would come against Rowan University and Stevens Institute of Technology. With just 24 hours separating matchups between their main rivals, the Lions had a difficult task at hand. The men took full advantage of that opportunity as they swept the Owl’s 162-123 and the sixth-ranked Ducks 151-111, taking the New Jersey Athletic Conference for the fifth straight year in the process.
Leading the men was freshman James Shangle who won the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke twice on two consecutive days. Also having two big performances was senior William Kasper, who was a member of the winning 200-yard medley relay team on Saturday, Jan. 26 with a time of 1:35.12. He also individually won the 100-yard butterfly with a 51.52 finish on Sunday, Jan. 27. Kasper, although successful, knew that this weekend was not going to be easy.
“It is pretty hard having both go your way because they were the two biggest meets of the year,” he said. “It’s a testament to (Coach) Bishop because when we are at Packer Hall we haven’t lost (a meet) in like three years so it’s pretty great.”
The women also started the weekend off strong by beating Rowan University 185-115 to clinch the NJAC’s for the fifth consecutive season. Although they had another great performance the following day, their six-game winning streak came to an end against Stevens Institute of Technology by a final score of 148-140.
“They’re a tough team and they’ve always been a tough team,” Head Coach Jennifer Harnett said. “We swam great races but they were just a little bit better (on Sunday).”
One swimmer who had an exceptional meet was senior captain Kayleigh Shangle who won a total of five events in two days. Three of those came individually against the Ducks in the 100-yard breaststroke, 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard breaststroke. Shangle’s most impressive victory was when she defeated the defending national champion, Brittany Geyer, at the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:25.13.
Senior Ashley Conroy also did well at both meets. On Saturday, she won both the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard freestyle with respective times of 1:00.47 and 54.7. The following day, Conroy returned to top form as she took first in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:10.86 and finished second in the 100-yard backstroke.
“We’ve raced each other before at Nationals so we know each other and how they swim,” Shangle said. “Every year we come into this meet knowing that it’ll come down to the last race and that every point counts.”
Although the meet against Stevens may not have turned out like the lady Lions had planned, Harnett is still optimistic with Nationals looming.
“It was a tough weekend, but I wanted to see how the girls could handle back-to-back days,” she said. “We had some great swims, some personal best times today, and (overall) I thought that the girls did a fantastic job.”
(01/22/13 5:00pm)
This past Saturday proved to be a big day for the Lions, as both the men and women conquered William Paterson University by scores of 171-100 and 194-84, respectively. This was no typical victory, however, as it marked the 200th win for the men’s head coach, Brian Bishop.
“It’s not a win for me, but a win for the program and that’s the way I look at it,” the 24-year veteran said. “Since 1989, when I first started with the team, we’ve had tremendous athletes come through and this is a great win for them, a great win for The College of New Jersey, and I am just glad to be part of it.”
As for the men’s team, they’re just happy to swim under Bishop’s guidance. Sophomore Mark Marsella had a career day and gives much credit to his coach.
“(Bishop) just told me to stay loose and to not swim robotically, so that’s what I did and it worked,” Marsella said.
With the time of 10:26.24 in the 1000-yard free, Marsella earned a collegiate best, which was good enough for a first place finish. In the 500-yard free, he placed second behind fellow sophomore Dennis Hall-App.
“It felt really cool to have done well on the day he had his 200th win,” Marsella said. “(It is special) because he really cares about our program and always puts us first, so it’s humbling.”
As for the other events, a trio of the College’s freshmen also dominated the 200-yard free, with Joseph Dunn, James Shangle and Frederick McDonald taking the top three spots, respectively. Sophomore William LaPorta also had big results, winning the 100-yard breast in 1:07.39 and 200-yard breast in 2:00.84. As for Bishop, he was quite pleased with the team’s progress.
“We had a big meet last weekend and a couple next weekend so we put some guys in who usually don’t do the events and they performed really well,” he said.
The women also had excellent times as they extended their undefeated record to 5-0. Leading the Lady Lions was senior Jenny Zavoda, who won both the 100-yard free in 55.16 and the 1000 free with the time of 11:19.86. Behind her for second and third place in the 1000 free were junior Amy Schurer and freshman Lauren Rothstein with respective times of 11:46.13 and 11:54.43.
Senior Samantha Parlow also had a great day for the women’s squad, taking first place in both the 50-yard free and 500-yard free. In the 50 free, she dominated the pool with the time of 25.46. Following that performance, she finished with another impressive time of 5:26.60 in the 500 free.
As for the diving team, senior Danica Roskos once again swept in both of her events. She racked up scores of 301.55 in the one-meter and 296.50 in the three-meter competition.
With the Lady Lions in complete control over the Pioneers, their main focus now turns over to next week against Rowan University and Stevens Institute of Technology.
“I am very proud of everyone because they all did well today,” Zavoda said. “I hope that we stay undefeated, but (both) are definitely worthy adversaries so I look forward (to that matchup).”
(12/05/12 5:00pm)
This past weekend was definitely memorable for the men’s and women’s swimming squads as they competed at the three-day TCNJ Invitational. Not only did both teams win, but school records were broken as several individuals beat their personal best times.
“It is a mid-year meet so we did have a couple days to rest,” Jennifer Harnett (women’s head coach) said. “We were expecting our in-season best times, but not necessarily our life-best times. So as far as that goes, my expectations have been far exceeded.”
This was shown as the women finished with a team total of 985.5 points, beating the second place squad from Long Island University Post by 53. The leaders for the College were seniors Kayleigh Shangle and Jenny Zavoda, junior Ashley Conroy and sophomores Brennah Ross and Nicole Muha.
Conroy started off strong on the first day, breaking her own school record in the 100-yard backstroke. Less than 24 hours later, she broke that record once again with the time of 56.91. Zavoda also raced well on Friday, winning the 500-yard freestyle event in 5:11.97. However, she was not yet finished and later that weekend won the 200-yard freestyle event with a time of 1:56.29.
As for the 100-yard breastroke, Shangle took first place with a finish of 1:04.99. Behind her in third place was Muha, who finished with a personal best of 1:06.50. Ross also had a lifetime best in the 400-yard IM, finishing second with a time of 4:35.43. These three times were all good enough to qualify for NCAAs in March.
As for the men’s team, they too dominated the United States Merchant Marine Academy and the University of Bridgeport. The Lions never trailed and had a final score of 1,319 points. Behind them in second place were the Purple Knights with a total of 857 points.
Head Men’s Coach Brian Bishop was pleased overall with his team’s performance. By the beginning of the second day, the Lions knew they were in control.
“We’ve done pretty well so far,” Bishop said. “Coming in we just wanted to (cut our times down to qualify for NCAAs),” which is exactly what they did.
Several of the men finished with impressive times. Senior Mike Caputo first got the ball rolling, winning the 500-yard free with a time of 4:35.48 and the 1650-yard free with a finish of 16:03.35.
“As a team, the majority of our guys got their best times,” Caputo said. “For me, I also wanted to get some best times for the NCAA cuts.”
As for the 800-yard freestyle relay team, Caputo, senior Evan Paulan, junior Stephan Tarnowski and sophomore Brian Perez all joined up to place first in the event with a time of 6:55.81. In the 200-yard butterfly event, sophomores Matthew VanBiervliet and Dennis Hall-App finished well in second and third place, respectively.
The men’s squad has much to look forward to as they head to Southern Connecticut University next Saturday, Dec.8. The women’s squad will also be joining them there at 2 p.m. as both look to improve upon this weekend’s impressive performance.
(11/27/12 9:00pm)
After landing impressive times at the Atlantic Regional Championships earlier in November, both senior Andy Gallagher and freshman Jack Leahy were poised to make a couple dominating runs when they headed west to Terre Haute, Ind. on Nov. 17 to compete in the 2012 NCAA Division III Men’s Cross Country Championship.
For the first time all season, the Lions were in unfamiliar territory. Typically using experience to their advantage, the duo did not know what to expect as both were making their first appearance at Nationals. Despite facing the unknown, Gallagher and Leahy wore their blue and gold uniforms proudly and were up to any challenge ahead of them.
“It was nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” Gallagher said. “Everyone deserved to be there so the field itself was pretty much full of good athletes.”
Of the 280 runners competing, Gallagher finished around the middle of the bunch with a time of 26:11.4, good enough for 167th place.
“I was just in a pack the entire time which made it a weird feeling not knowing where (I was positioned) for the whole race,” Gallagher added. “I was hoping for a top-100 performance so I am a little bit disappointed that I didn’t get that, but overall, I am just happy of having the experience of going to Nationals.”
As for Leahy, he too was also happy for making the meet in Indiana. Although he did not run as fast as he had planned with a time of 26:23.0, he knows that he has three more years to improve.
“I wanted to place in the upper half of the runners, but that didn’t end up happening unfortunately,” Leahy said. “I may not have ran my best (that day), but overall I was just happy to be there because I am a freshman.”
Being young definitely has its benefits for Leahy. Although he finished lower than he had liked in 202nd place, after breaking it down, Leahy’s performance was very impressive. Of the 280 runners competing at Nationals, only 28 of them were freshmen. With this feat alone, this future 2016 graduate knows he has a bright future ahead of him.
“It was great to end my freshman year on a high note,” he said. “Now that I made it to Nationals, it made me realize that I need to make that my goal for seasons to come.”
Along with both Gallagher and Leahy making their Nationals debut, the Lions had another accomplishment. For the first time since 2008, the College’s men’s team sent multiple runners to Nationals. Although both would have wanted to have done a little better, they agree that this was a major win for their cross country program.
“I am happy with (what Leahy has done) because as a freshman, it really gets the younger guys realizing that they are capable of making it to Nationals which is something that the older guys didn’t see as much,” Gallagher said. “Now he can show the younger kids that (with his experience), in the near future, they can make it to Nationals as a team.”
(11/13/12 11:00pm)
Coming into the Atlantic Regional Championships last Saturday, head coach Phil Jennings and the rest of his team knew that with the season on the line, they would have to run with authority. Although both the men and the women came up just short of qualifying for nationals, they gained some valuable experience, which will help them in the near future.
“Our thought was that if we just did our best and ran well, then both teams could have been in the top five if everything came together,” Jennings said. “We would have needed it to be a perfect day for it to all happen, but you can only control so much.”
For the men, their top two runners, senior Andy Gallagher and freshman Jack Leahy, had big days, finishing with times of 25:58.7 and 26:04.9, respectively. These times were good enough for a chance to qualify for individual nationals. Behind them was junior Dominic Tasco with a time of 26:04.9 and freshman Jon Stouber, finishing in 26:27.9. With this combined effort, the Lions managed to take 6th place out of 44 universities.
Although the Lions did not qualify as a team, Jennings is still proud of the men’s effort.
“It was a good season for our guys, we had lost five of our top seven guys from last year, so we had a pretty young team,” he said. “Coming in, there wasn’t a lot of experience because we only had two guys who competed (Saturday) that went there the year before so (although they were young), the guys had a tough and motivated team.”
As for the women, they were not as fortunate when it came to their 6K race.
“It was particularly disappointing for Cathy Goncalves to place 14th and not make it individually,” Jennings said.
With a time of 22:27.6, this senior missed the cutoff for nationals by just a few runners. To be eligible for nationals, the runner must finish within the top seven. If however, the runner also qualified for their team event, then they lose their spot in individuals and it is given to the person with the next fastest time. In most situations, Goncalves would have qualified.
As for the team, behind the captain was sophomore Tara Nealon and junior Anginelle Alabanza with respective times of 23:22.3 and 23:41.3. Overall, the Lady Lions finished 11th out of 39 other Division III schools.
With the season unfortunately over, the Lions are now forced to reflect back on it.
“There were a lot of things which did not go our way,” Jennings said. “There were a couple of early season injuries so it was more challenging on the women’s side pulling everything together to be where we wanted to be.”
Although it may not have been the ideal ending for the Lions, not all is completely lost. According to Jennings, “The experience that those guys got from (the race) should certainly help going into next year.”
(10/16/12 7:04pm)
After racing at the Lafayette Leopard Invitational this past weekend, the Lions clearly showed that they were the most dominant of the Division III teams there. Of the 13 schools competing, the men and women finished in fifth and sixth place, respectively.
“Other than Muhlenberg and Lebanon Valley, they were all Division I and Division II schools so there was definitely some good competition and good schools,” head coach Phil Jennings said about the meet.
As for the way his teams competed, Jennings was impressed with both the men and women.
“Anytime the top scoring (men) are that close then that’s really positive to be able to pact the guys in like that,” he said.
The top-five runners for the Lions all finished within 19 seconds of each other, a very impressive feat. Leading them on the challenging five-mile course was freshman Jack Leahy with a time of 26:29.41, which was good enough for 26th overall. Right behind Leahy was junior Dominic Tasco and senior Andy Gallagher with times of 26:30.24 and 26:38.12, respectively.
“The whole team did amazing,” Leahy said. “It was a tough course, but we were able to stick it out.”
As for this freshman, finishing first for his team happened on his birthday, making the result extra special.
“This week he was able to do really well before we go into the NJAC championships so that should definitely help with us moving forward,” Jennings said of Leahy. “Anytime you can build off a race like that, then that’s a good thing.”
As for the women, senior Cathy Goncalves was able to lead the Lady Lions after an exceptional top-10 individual finish. This performance helped her edge a lot of elite Division I athletes with the time of 21:31.53.
“She really competed well today and just needs to keep working,” Jennings said of Goncalves. “We knew she was definitely capable of (competing at such a high level).”
Following Goncalves and finishing second for the College was sophomore Jillian Manzo with the time of 22:41.12.Behind her, placing 50-53th overall, were senior Rachel Morris, junior Megan Flynn, senior Alyssa Bannon and sophomore Tara Nealon, respectively.
According to Jennings, he is happy with the team’s progression so far and he thinks that they are peaking at the right time.
“We want to be there at the end of the season when every race really counts and that’s where we gear our training towards,” Jennings said. “It doesn’t matter so much if we drop times at the beginning of the season if we don’t have anything left by the end when the championships start.”
(09/25/12 9:07pm)
The Lions came to Richard Stockton College for the Osprey Open with high hopes. After winning the event last year, both the men and the women knew what to expect and did not disappoint. Although they easily dispatched the other Division III schools, their main focus was to get a better understanding of the course.
“Later in October we have our NJAC Championships there so the main reason for going to the meet was to see the course,” senior captain Cathy Goncalves said. “We just wanted to figure it out because it has changed from last year so we knew it was going to be low key when we went there.”
Although the Lions tried to reserve energy for next week’s Paul Short Invitational, they were still able to dominate, with eight of the women finishing in the top 10. Leading the college was Goncalves with a time of 23:56.17, good enough for second place. Right behind her were juniors Julie Jablonski, Anginelle Alabanza and senior Rachel Morris finishing third through fifth, respectively.
“(This meet was a confidence boost) mainly because it was good for the girls to work together,” Goncalves said. “It’s not just about going out there to race against yourself and your opponent, but it’s also important to race with your teammates and to help each other out.”
After Saturday’s performance, it is definitely safe to say that the women are currently clicking together as a team. As for the men, they were equally as impressive as the women.
“We ran this meet last year and won by a big margin,” senior captain Mark Sidebottom said. “Coming in this time, we just wanted to follow the race plan which we made. It ended up working pretty successfully.”
Placing second, Sidebottom led the Lions with the time of 26:33.07. Behind him in fourth and fifth place were senior Michael Berti and sophomore Andrew DeMaria with times of 26:46.66 and 26:52.21, respectively. The Lions finished off their team score by showing their depth, having runners place from eighth through 16th. The finishers were freshman Roberto Guiducci, junior James Seyffart, freshman Jon Stouber, junior Ryan Ure, junior Dominic Tasco, freshman Jack Leahy, senior Alex Matteson, junior Walter Ingram and freshman Mike Olivola in that order.
“We ran a good showing,” Sidebottom said. “Judging by the results, we had three of the top five runners so we were really able to do what we wanted to do.”
With next week’s Invitational at Lehigh University, the Lions are ready for another top notch performance by a full team effort.
“It’s one of the biggest ones in the nation so we are really excited about that,” Goncalves said.
Only time will tell, but after this past weekend’s results, the Lions hope to use their momentum and run well next week.
They will be competing in the Paul Short Invitational on Friday Sept. 28.