The Ramapo men’s and women’s swim teams fell to Susquehanna University on Saturday in two non-conference matches. The men’s team now stands at 1-3 on the season after narrowly losing by a score of 130-126, and the women’s team fell to 1-4 after losing 176-71. Despite not taking home wins, both teams had some standout performances.
For the men, the 200-yard medley relay team — made up of Brendan McDevitt, Emile Eeckhout, Benjamin Gomez and Joe Swede — finished second with a final time of 1:41.22. This was the beginning for an impressive day for Eeckhout, who took home three first-place finishes in individual races.
First, Eeckhout won the 100-yard breaststroke, just beating Susquehanna swimmer Andre Fissella by .01 second with a time of 1:00.22. Next, he won the 200-yard breaststroke, this time with a bit more breathing room as he finished six seconds ahead of second place with his time of 2:17.37. Finally, he took home first-place in the 200-yard IM, collecting his third win on the day.
Eeckhout was not the only Roadrunner who finished first in an event. Samuel De Leon finished three seconds ahead of Susquehanna’s Trevor Johnson in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 57.05.
Ramapo collected nine points in the 200-yard butterfly as the team had the second, third and fourth place finishers. These were Giovanni Alvarez, Caleb Baron and AJ Guevara, respectively. Other Ramapo swimmers who finished second in their competitions on the day included Baron in the 200-yard freestyle, Gomez in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly, De Leon in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard relay team made up of McDevitt, Allesandro Alvarez, G. Alvarez and Swede.
For the women’s team, Alazne Sudupe had a very successful day, picking up two first-place finishes. Her first victory came in the 1,000-yard freestyle, where she won in convincing fashion with her time of 11:32.50. This time was more than 30 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Susquehanna’s Megan Iannacone. Her second win came in the 500-yard freestyle, where she once again finished far ahead of second place. This time, she finished with a 5:40.72 time, nearly 12 seconds ahead of second place.
Alexis Pappas also had an impressive showing, finishing first in the 100-yard freestyle and finishing second in the 50-yard freestyle. Her times for these races were 57.90 seconds and 26.34 seconds, respectively.
Other second-place finishers for Ramapo were Sudupe, Camila Mercado and Valeria Pages. Sudupe grabbed second place in the 200-yard IM with her time of 2:21.93. Mercado finished the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:15.26 and Pages completed the 100-yard butterfly in 1:03.66.
The men’s team will look to bounce back from this tight loss on Friday, Nov. 18 as they travel to Kean University to compete in the Cougar Invitational at 5:30 p.m. The women’s teams will look to rebound when they host John Jay College in the Adele and Reuben Thomas Pool on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Bradley Center. It will be another non-conference match for both teams.
bschmid@ramapo.edu
Photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics.
