Nov. 24, 2002
FAIRFAX, VA... The University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) men and the Duke women finished strong Sunday to claim the respective team championships after the third day of competition at the Patriot Invitational at the Jim McKay Natatorium.
The Retriever men scored 827 points to easily outdistance second-place UNC Wilmington, which scored 694.5 points and held off a charge from Duke, which finished third with 643. On the women's side, the Blue Devils continued their weekend domination as they scored 980.5 points to surpass host George Mason, second with 711.5 points.
Meet records continued to fall like autumn leaves in the third year of the event. After 11 meet records fell in the first two days (four Friday and seven Saturday), four men's marks were broken in Sunday's preliminaries before three of them were shattered again in the finals. In addition, four others were broken in Sunday's finals for a total of 19 broken meet records over the weekend.
On the men's side, Duke's Andy Storm broke the meet record in the 200-yard breaststroke in the morning preliminaries, then bettered that with a time of 2:04.16 in the finals. UMBC's Geza Szabo also broke the mark in the 200 butterfly in the morning only to beat it again in the evening with a time of 1:49.03. In the 200 backstroke, Duke's Billy Pearce, George Mason's Tim Norton, UMBC's Jakub Sroczynski and Seton Hall's Evan Koenig all surpassed the previous record in the prelims, but Sroczynski broke Pearce's record with a time of 1:49.86 in the finals. UNC Wilmington's David Sokolofsky broke the mark in the 100 freestyle with a time of 45.73 seconds in the prelims, but he was unable to better that mark despite winning the finals in 45.84 seconds. The last men's mark to fall in the finals was in the 400 freestyle relay, where UNCW's Sokolofsky, Michael Krayer, Tiago Barreira and Pat Bradford won in 3:03.72.
George Mason's Lauren Stinnett led the women's record breakers as she claimed the 200 butterfly in 2:00.74. Other women's marks to fall included the 200 backstroke, where UMBC's Astrid Sperling edged Stinnett with a time of 2:00.87, and the 200 breaststroke, where Duke's Lauren Cornet won in 2:18.03.
Other women's winners included Duke's Alison Sundberg with a time of 52.13 seconds in the 100 freestyle and the Blue Devils' 400 freestyle relay team of Cornet, Julia Lewis, Nora Stupp and Sundberg in 3:31.04.
In diving, George Mason swept the top three spots in the women's one-meter event as Jamie Downing was first with 477.85 points, Mary Campioli second with 473.10 and Liz Gabriel third with 432.70. In the men's three-meter diving, UNC Wilmington's Dean Berman won with 432.45 points.
TEAM SCORES (FINAL)
MEN
UMBC - 827
UNC Wilmington - 694.5
Duke - 643
George Mason - 559.5
Seton Hall - 481
George Washington - 204
Georgetown - 188
Shippensburg - 119
Howard - 73
St. Bonaventure - 64
WOMEN
Duke - 980.5
George Mason - 711.5
UMBC - 559
UNC Wilmington - 507
George Washington - 383
Seton Hall - 242
Georgetown - 238
Shippensburg - 173
St. Bonaventure - 47
St. Francis - 12
Howard - 6
