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Posted: Feb 15, 2015

FIT Swimmers Find Success at NE District Championships

The long-awaited Swimming Championship season began this weekend with Northeast Districts at Monroe. The Fashion Institute of Technology Women's team finished the meet in third place with 231 points, while the Men secured sixth with 75 points. For its efforts, the Women's team earned Most Improved honors.

Every member of the two teams scored in the top-12 in each of their events. 1650 freestylers Emily Mance and Nick Paganelli led the charge with a pair of silver medals in their main event, posting times of 18:57.11 and 19:16.71, respectively. Both swimmers took bronze in the 400 IM as well with Mance touching the wall in 5:26.75 and Paganelli in 4:58.63. They each added another individual top-6 finish to their names as Mance snared fourth in the 500 free in 5:31.10 and Paganelli finished sixth in the 200 IM with a time of 2:17.07, shy of his prelim time, 2:15.70.

The FIT women tallied four more second-place finishes in the 200 free, 400 free, 200 medley, and 400 medley relays. Mance, Anna Pacult, Katie Hogan, and Lindsay Richardson swam times of 1:54.36 and 4:15.83 to rank sixth and seventh, respectively, all-time at FIT. In the medleys, Hogan, Katie vanBeek, Mance, and Richardson moved to fifth all-time in both the 200 (2:10.91) and 400 (4:47.65).

Richardson added three top-6 finishes in the sprint freestyles, posting season-best times in each. She swam to fifth in the 50 (27.72), fifth in the 100 (1:01.39), and sixth in the 200 (2:14.36). Joining her in the 50 were Hogan in seventh (28.37), Pacult in ninth (28.90), and vanBeek in tenth (28.98). The same women scored in the 100 with Hogan taking sixth (1:03.83), vanBeek seventh (1:04.29), and Pacult eighth (1:05.51). Hogan, who is swimming injured, turned in her fastest 100 backstroke of the season to take third in 1:08.89, which places fourth all-time at FIT. VanBeek matched her with a third place finish of her own in the 100 breaststroke and a lifetime best 1:21.67. Pacult contributed eighth place points with a 1:25.68, slightly off her prelim time of 1:25.07. VanBeek now stands second all-time in that event at FIT, and Pacult stands fourth.

For the men, joining Paganelli with three top-6 finishes, Jeff Sutera earned fifth in the 50 free (23.98), sixth in the 100 free (53.01), and fifth in the 200 free (2:03.34). Ian Lowe improved his lifetime best 100 freestyle time yet again this season, finishing ninth in 57.93. He also earned tenth place points in the 50 freestyle with a 26.31 and went on to place eighth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:17.92.

In addition to the women's team earning Most Improved, coach David Hildebrand was awarded the Northeast District women's team Coach of the Year.

The next and final meet of the season is the NJCAA National Championships, which will be held in Buffalo, NY, March 4-7.