Day 4 Results
Geneva, Ohio - (Feb. 23, 2013) - The Fordham men's swimming & diving team closed out the 2013 Atlantic 10 Championship in fifth place at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio. The incredible night of finals saw a very excited Steve Sholdra capture gold in the 1650-yard freestyle by breaking the oldest Atlantic 10 record on the books, while three more school records were broken.
Overall, St. Bonaventure won the Atlantic 10 Championship with 688 points, followed by Massachusetts (613.5), Xavier (519), George Washington (397), Fordham (391.5), Saint Louis (386.5), and La Salle (362.5).
The night began with a bang in the 1650-yard freestyle final, as Steve Sholdra won gold in an Atlantic 10 and school record time of 15:24.66. The time broke the oldest Atlantic 10 record on the books, which was 15:34.07 by Ed Denny of West Virginia, set in 1980, as well as the Fordham mark of 15:32.76, set by Paul Smith in 1992. In addition, Sholdra's time was also an NCAA "B" qualifying mark, while his 1000-yard split time of 9:16.22 also broke Smith's 1992 mark in 1000-yard freestyle of 9:21.80.
Next was the 200-yard backstroke, where three Rams made the finals. Thomas Yi led the way in the "A" final, taking sixth place in 1:49.29, while Michael Grimmett-Norris was fifth in the "B" final (13th overall - 1:51.44) and Will Thomann was seventh (15th overall - 1:52.46).
In the 100-yard freestyle, Devon Morris was the lone Ram in the finals, as he won the "B" final (9th overall) with a time of 45.39 seconds.
Two Rams scored In the 200-yard breaststroke, as Ben Dwyer was seventh in the "A" final in 2:04.10, while Zachary Jacobsen placed fourth in the "B" final (12th overall) in 2:05.85.
The last individual swimming event was the 200-yard butterfly, where Shintaro Noguchi posted the top preliminary time of 1:48.18, breaking the school record of 1:49.04, set by Atsushi Ohtaka in 1992. Then, in the finals, Noguchi finished fourth in the "A" final in 1:49.18, followed by Kevin Kosciuk in seventh (1:52.56) and Patrick Militti in eighth (1:52.60).
The final individual event overall was the men's three-meter dive. Kevin Wong once again made the finals, as he took seventh with a score of 216.50. Kevin Jimenez-Cowell also scored as his preliminary mark of 163.52 was good for ninth.
The championship ended with the 400 freestyle relay, as the Rams' group of Noguchi, Militti, Yi, and Morris took home fifth in a time of 3:02.10.
