Warriors finish season with best record in 40 years

Justin Ossont
Sports Editor 

In the 1964-65 swim season, the team finished with a record of 11-1.  This year’s group of warriors didn’t win eleven straight meets, but they did win 8 and Saturday the Warriors swept both the men’s and women’s meet to finish their season 8-1 overall in the MAC conference.

The victory also helped head coach Jerry Hammaker make history as becoming the winningest coach in Lycoming College Swimming. On Saturday, Hammaker broke the last coaching record that did not have his name on it.  With his 82nd dual meet victory, Hammaker broke the 40-year old record formerly held by Mort Rauff.

Photo provided by Lycoming CollegeFreshman Trevor Endler (below) was named swimmer of the week Jan. 14.Hammaker passed Rauff after just wrapping up his 12th season as head coach.  Hammaker finished with a record of 82-36 (.695) while Rauff is in second with 81-69-2 (.529). On the women’s side, Hammaker is the all-time record is 87-33-1(.723) and a MAC championship.

On Saturday Jan. 19, both the men’s and women’s team took on Arcadia and it was also senior day for the program.  The men won 137-78 while the women won 135-81.

The men’s side was extremely dominant in the victory posting 10 victories in 14 events.  In seven of the victories the Warriors placed 1-2.  Some standout performances from the day included freshman Kyle Garase and junior Jack Port who both posted two wins in events.  Freshman Josh Thomas won the 100-yard backstroke, sophomore Daniel Woods won the 100- yard breaststroke, senior Nate Oropollo won the 50-yard freestyle and junior Peter Fields won the 200-yard breaststroke.

The men’s relay teams also swept the meet.  In the 200-yard medley relay, the team of Woods, Thomas, Oropollo and freshman Dan Apostolu won with a time of 1:43.92. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the team of sophomore Kyle Petchock, junior C.J. Arhontakis, Woods and Garase won with a time of 1:33.91.
On the women’s side of the meet, the Lady Warriors won their 4th consecutive meet and finished with a record of 7-3 overall and 6-3 in the MAC.  The victory came with the help of some outstanding young talent.  Sophomores BethAnn Schwoyer, Banille Loiseau, and Alexia Follweiler each posted two wins in their respective events.

Some individual victories came from freshman Cathrin Manning, Jilly Flynn, junior Jennie Marosits, sophomore Brigid Clark and senior Elisa Becker.

During the second intermission of the meet, seniors Hoper Weber, Lindsey Hunsicker, Becker, and Caitlin DeAngelo from the women’s and Oropollo and  seniorJehiel Boner from the men’s, were recognized for their contributions to the program.

Now both teams will have to wait till the weekend of February 8th as  both teams will board the bus and make the trip of about 60 miles and head to Wilkes-Barre for the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships at the Wilkes-Barre Catholic Youth Center.  The event starts on Friday Feb. 8th at 12 p.m. and will conclude  on Sunday, Feb. 11.