Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
Ramapo’s men’s and women’s swim teams looked to gain momentum before the Metropolitan Conference Championships when they took on Montclair State University in the last meet of the 2015-16 regular season.
Ramapo’s ninth-year head coach Gary Orr felt that building momentum for the Metropolitan Conference Championships was not important.
“We swam well, we had some really good times, they swam better than us, but in the end, we’re getting ready for the Conference Championships now,” said Orr. “We’ve got three weeks to go, eight hard days of practice and nine days of tape room. That’s what we focus on; that’s our main goal from the very beginning of the season.”
Sophomore Jose Alferez was the first Ramapo men’s swimmer in the meet to claim a first place finish, which he did in the 100-yard backstroke in 54.29 seconds, as he earned nine points for the Roadrunners. He also took home the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard instant medley later on in the meet.
Orr said that the men’s 200-yard instant medley was the fastest that the Adele and Reuben Thomas Swimming Pool has ever witnessed.
“Jose won it, but everybody was within 1.2 seconds – six guys. It was the fastest 200 IM this pool has ever seen … kudos to both teams on that one. It was an amazing race,” said Orr.
Junior RJ Carillo claimed a win in the 100-yard breaststroke with a finishing time of 1:00.52.
For the women’s team, the medley relay team of junior captain Brenda Arthur, sophomores Maggie Herbert and Meghan Trewhella and senior Danielle Bach managed to outswim Montclair in the 200-yard medley relay with a finishing time of 1:52.43.
Herbert claimed a first place finish in the 200-yard freestyle, while Bach and sophomore Julia Housel finished first respectively in the 100-yard backstroke. She later earned her second and third victories in the meet in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle.
Freshman Samantha Chan was victorious in the 100-yard breaststroke for nine points, as she came in with a time of 1:13.66.
Chan and freshman Emily Hegarty finished in first and second respectively in the 200-yard breaststroke, and Arthur claimed victories in two consecutive races in the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard IM.
Orr said the teams just had to stay focused throughout the meet.
“We can’t help what the other team is doing and don’t know if they’ve rested or what they’ve done,” said Orr. “We were also coming off a big meet on Saturday, we had a meet Saturday. We swam a Division I opponent on Saturday, and we extended ourselves a lot, so by this time of year, you tire, so Saturday took a lot out of us.”
Orr said that the meet went as he expected.
“Kids are peaking at the right time and now the rest comes, so it was exactly what we expected from our side. I can’t control what the other team did and we’re right on path to have I think a tremendous Conference Championships,” said Orr.
The teams will travel to Rutgers University in New Brunswick to compete in the Metropolitan Conference Championships from Feb. 19 to Feb. 22, as they will look to improve their finishes from last year. The women’s team took home program bests in place and points, earned with a sixth-place finish, while the men’s team also finished in sixth place.
pmcguire@ramapo.edu
