Swim Teams Off To Splendid Start In 2012 Metropolitan Conference Championships

Piscataway, N.J.-The University of Bridgeport men's and women's swimming teams got off to a splendid start on day one of the three-day 2012 Metropolitan Conference Championships being held in the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center on the campus of Rutgers University, as the Purple Knights posted a total of eight first place finishes in the 10 swimming finals on Friday night.  In the team scores after the first day of the 2012 Metropolitan Conference Championships, the UB men are in second place, with 397 points, and the Bridgeport women are in fifth place with 288 points.  There are a total of 21 teams competing in this year's Metropolitan Conference Championship. 

On the men's side, the Purple Knights won three individual events and two relays, and the UB women won two individual events and captured one relay.

For the Bridgeport men in individual events, senior Davide Sitti (Castelnuovo Ramgone. Italy) won the 500-yard Free in a school record time of 4:33.68 (NCAA "B" Cut), sophomore Ruben Gimenez (Burgos, Spain) took first in the 200-yard IM in a time of 1:51.71 (NCAA "B" Cut), and sophomore, team captain Oscar Pereiro (Arzua, Spain) won the 50-yard Free in a brisk 20:58 (NCAA "B" Cut).

In the men's 500 Free, junior Ilkka Hanhineva (Pietarsaari, Finland) took second behind Sitti in a time of 4:35.58 (NCAA "B" Cut),, and junior Krzysztof Wilk (Krakow, Poland) was fourth (4:37.39) (NCAA "B" Cut),. In the men's 200 IM, freshman Igor Vulesevic (Zrenjanin, Serbia) was fourth (1:53.47) (NCAA "B" Cut), and junior Vyacheslav Fattakhov (Almatt, Kazakhstan) grabbed sixth place (1:54.88) (NCAA "B" Cut).

In relay events, the UB men's 200-yard freestyle team of Gimenez, Pereiro, Wilk and freshman Vladislav Paskas (Zrenjanin, Serbia) won the event in a time of 1:21.75, and the men's 400-yard Medley Team of Pereiro, Gimenez, Paskas and Hanhineva turned in a first place meet, pool and school record time of 3:17.51.  That time in the 400 Medley Relay is also an NCAA "A" Cut, and in that event Oscar Pereiro's lead-off leg time of 48.11 is an NCAA "A" Cut, meet and pool record in the 100-yard Backstroke.

On the women's side, sophomore Maria Trubitsyna (Moscow, Russia) dominated the competition winning the 500-yard Free by more than 11 seconds in a meet and school record time of 4:50.06.  That time is also the fastest time in Division II so far this season.  Women's team captain Maris Visse (SR, Tallinn, Estonia) was third in the same event in a time of 5:07.22 (NCAA "B" Cut).

 Junior Anna Krasnowska (Kedzierzyn-Kozie, Poland) took first place in the women's 200-yard IM in a time of 2:09.12 (NCAA "B" Cut), and freshman Mona Hagelstein (Hamburg, Germany) was third in the same event in a time of 2:10.01 (NCAA "B" Cut),

Freshman Alina Sotnikova (Riga, Latvia) took seventh place in the women's 50-yard Free in a time of 24:49.

The women's 400-yard Medley Relay Team of Sotnikova, Trubitsyna, Krasnowska and sophomore Ilka Oberle (Schwanau, Germany) took first place in a time of 3:51.41 (NCAA "B" Cut).  Alina Sotnikova turned in an NCAA "B" Cut time of 58:38 in the 100 Back to lead off the Medley Relay.  The women's 200-yard Free Relay (Krasnowska, Sotnikova, Trubitsyna and Hagelstein) took third place in a time of 1:36.96 (NCAA "B" Cut).

Action at the 2012 Metropolitan Conference Championships continues through Sunday evening.