Ostrander wins gold, records fall at ECACs
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – With more than five school records broken, multiple top-10 finishes and a gold medal already recorded, the Bryant University swim team arguably put forth their best all-around performance to date in day one at the ECAC Championships Friday in Pittsburgh, Pa.
At the conclusion of the first day, the women's team earned 55 points and currently sits in seventh place in the 19-team field with Harvard University on top. On the men's side the Bulldogs have amassed 63 points, good enough for eighth in the 14-team field, as the United States Naval Academy paces the swimming and diving competition with 234 points.
Picking up right where she left off was sophomore Casey Ostrander (Yamrouthport, Mass.), as the NEC all-conference first team selection broke the school record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.57. Ostrander, who broke the previous record last week at MIT (23.60), went on to capture gold in the 50-yard freestyle final to give Bryant 20 points in the meet with a time of 23.67.
Freshman standout Taylor DeBever (Denver, Colo.) continued to make a name for herself, as the Colorado native shattered the 500-yard freestyle school record, finishing 11th overall with a 5:01.22 mark.
The women's 400-yard medley relay squad of DeBever, Ostrander, Kaitlin Buckley (Duxbury, Mass.) and Brianne Dwyer (Hicksville, N.Y.) raced to a fifth-place finish en route to breaking the previous school record with a time of 3:54.34.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Alex Kosenski (Lavalette, N.J.), Alex Dropo (Sandwich, Mass.), Logan Hammerstein (Fairfield Township, OH) and Nicholas Karadimas (New Milford, Conn.) set a school record of their own, as the lineup finished fifth overall with a time of 1:25.15, giving Bryant an additional 28 points.
Kosenksi would go on to shatter the men's 50-yard freestyle record, as the New Jersey native finished eighth overall with a school-record time of 21.19.
The men's 400-yard medley relay team of Cameron Hessler (Southbury, Conn.), Thomas Hyunh (Malden, Mass.), Sean Martell (Nashua, N.H.) and Kosenski would break the school record with a preliminary time of 3:22.71. The crew was not finished though as they would go on to claim seventh place in the event with a 3:27.99 mark, giving the Black and Gold 24 points.
Bryant will look to match its record-breaking performance in day two of the ECAC Championships Saturday morning starting at 11:00 a.m. Follow all the action live at http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/livestats/c-swim/index.htm