Feb. 25, 2008

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - On the second night of finals, the Highlanders continued to swim record breaking times at the 2008 Metropolitan Swimming Championships.

The women continued its attack of the NJIT record book again, as they reset their record in the 200 medley relay. Sadie Mele led off with the third fastest 50 yard backstroke split of the meet, followed by Karen Cilento in breaststroke, Bonnie Fiallo in butterfly and Teresa Higgins in freestyle. With a time of 2:02.49 shaved more than two seconds off their record from the morning.

"As they did last night in the 200 freestyle relay, each women was able to swim a faster split than she did in the morning. You can't help but to go faster when you do that. The women are having a great meet; it is really exciting for us." said head coach Eric Rasmussen.

On the men's side, the squad of Steve Schreyer, Mike Lawson, Hayk Ekshian and Sean Stafford improved from their preliminary swim with a time of 1:45.00

In the 100 yard butterfly, Hayk Ekshian once again bettered his time. While his preliminary time of: 53.08 had broken his school record and qualified him for the ECAC Championship meet. Taking the first half of the race out faster than in the morning, Ekshian held his blistering pace, finishing the race in: 52.97. He had once again broken his school record in the 100 butterfly, and in the process, recording his first sub: 53 second swim in the event.

Other point scorers for the Highlander men included James Paccioretti in the 200 yard freestyle and Lawson in the 100 yard breaststroke.

Back on the women's side, Cilento picked up Highlander points with her 24th place finish in the 100 yard breaststroke. In the 100 yard backstroke, Mele just missed her record from the morning but recorded the second fastest time in NJIT history.

In the final event of the night, the 800 yard freestyle relay, the NJIT squad seemed determined to take down the three year old school record. Michael Finley was a member of the record setting foursome from 2005 but had missed breaking the record in the 2006 and 2007 attempts. Lawson and Paccioretti had teamed with Finley on the last two tries only to miss the record by less then two seconds last year and by a mere .3 seconds the year before.

With Lawson leading off, Finley and Paccioretti swam the second and third legs of the race. Though behind record pace over the first 300 yards, they slowly began to make up time as Finley completed his segment. Paccioretti's strong effort handed anchor man Sean Stafford the opportunity to bring home the record. A strong performance by all four ensured their place in the record book with a time that sliced over ten seconds off the previous record.

Head coach Eric Rasmussen had this to say "Overall we had another great night. We had a few people make their first ever appearance in the finals - it's a very exciting feeling to come back at night and swim for team points. We set a few more school records and saw a couple of lifetime best swims. So far, it's been a fantastic meet. Tomorrow is the last day (of the meet) and I see our team continuing to perform exceptionally well."

Through Saturday night's finals, NJIT has broken school records on 12 occasions in seven different events.

(description courtesy head coach Eric Rasmussen)