This past weekend, the men’s and women’s varsity swimming took the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) by storm with outstanding performances at the conference championship. Every year, before this meet, coaches from each of the MAC teams vote on what they think the final ranking will be. This poll has historically been a good indicator of the outcome of the meet. This year the men’s team was in a great position going into the competition, having been unanimously voted first place by the 2023 MAC Men’s Swimming Pre-Championship Coaches’ Poll. The women were similarly well positioned, coming in second overall in the 2023 MAC Women’s Swimming Pre-Championship Coaches Poll and receiving three first place votes.
The men started and ended the meet strong, securing top three places in all but two of the 18 events and 12 first place victories. The highest scorer with 96 individual points was last year’s MAC Rookie of the Year, Edward Platonov. Platonov placed first in the 200 Individual Medley, 200 Free, 400 Medley Relay, 200 Fly, 800 Free Relay, and 400 Free Relay, resulting in him being named the 2023 David B. Eavenson Award winner and MAC Men’s Swimmer of the Year.
Other standouts included graduate student Ali Kolenovic, who wrapped up his last competition in the MAC with an individual score of 92 points, earning first place in the 500 Free, 400 Medley Relay, 800 Free Relay, and 200 Backstroke. Kolenovic also secured an NCAA “B” cut time in the 200 Backstroke. Freshman Angel Velasquez had a great performance, scoring 91 points, placing within the top three for six of his events, and earning first in the 400 Medley Relay, 100 Breaststroke, and 200 Breaststroke. Velasquez was subsequently named the 2023 MAC Men’s Swimming Rookie of the Year. For Mike Shusta, a graduate student and the longest-serving member of the team, this was the last meet of his collegiate swim career, spanning five seasons and four championships. Shusta scored in all of his five events and added 40 points to the score. Ultimately, the men’s team won with an impressive final score of 1,572, over 500 points ahead of the competition.
The women’s team had an equally great performance at the meet. They scored 10 top three places in eight of the 18 events, with two first place wins. The freshman team showed up strong to this meet with the two top scorers, Natalia Brunetti and Gabrielle Tyer. Brunetti scored 87 individual points, placing among the top ten in six of her events with first in the 100 and 200 Breaststroke. Tyer’s performance placed her in the top ten for all of her four events with silver in the 400 Individual Medley and bronze in the 200 Fly. Sophomores Sophie Patz and Kai Wong also pulled off great races scoring 80 and 78 individual points respectively. The women had an exciting back and forth with Misericordia University across the four day meet. After the first day of races, they wound up in third place but had fought their way to second by the end of the second day. Heading into the last day, they were only ahead of Misericordia by 50 points but held onto their place thanks to outstanding performances in the 200 Backstroke. In this event, seven Stevens women scored, and four placed in the top 10. These swimmers were Sophie Patz, Kai Wong, Rachel Merrifield, and Melissa Misurelli coming in second, third, fourth, and seventh, respectively. Ultimately, the women scored 1,110 points and placed second, seven points ahead of Misericordia and just under 200 points off of Messiah University, who came in first.
Good job to everyone who swam in the championship, congratulations to the graduating members of the team, and good luck next year to the returning members!
