Drew swimming opened its 2009-10 season against the Ramapo Roadrunners at the Kirby Pool on Saturday.  Despite losing both matches, the Rangers had a number of strong individual performances, as the large Class of '13 got wet for the first time as collegians.  Senior Selena Davis produced the highlight by cruising to the win in the 100 Backstroke.  Equally important, the Rangers posted a handful of times that would have been top marks last season in just this first meet.  The overall scores prove the quality and depth of the Roadrunners rather than the efforts of the Rangers; Ramapo's men won 169-32 and women won 146-26.

The meet started promisingly, but also foreshadowed the eventual results.  Both Selena Davis (31.68) and freshman Walter Bakun (27.16) gave the Rangers' 200 Medley Relay teams leads after blistering lead backstroke legs.  Unfortunately, the middle legs heavily favored Ramapo in both races as the Roadrunners took the 11 points each time.  Head Coach Eric Scheingoltz is optimistic about the men's 200 Medley Team's potential and it is easy to see why with Bakun leading off and Alex Braunstein anchoring the relay with a 24.46 freestyle leg, the fastest of the day.

Freshman Ben Kurose showed his potential as a point grabber in the men's 1000.  Kurose put up solid times in the middle laps to take second place with a 11:39.29 nearly 55 seconds ahead of the third place finisher.  Sophomore Jasmine Prokscha was a pleasant surprise last season and raised expectations even more by swimming a 12:55.47 1000 Free, nearly two seconds faster than her best time in that event all of last season.

 

Freshman Damien Berube swam a 2:11.78 in the 200 Free, which would have been a Top 5 time for the Rangers last season, and later took fourth in the 100 Fly with a 1:02.89.  That time would have been the best of the season for the Rangers in '08-09, but it wasn't even the best of the race today.  Berube's classmate Uly Baldwin-Beneich touched at 1:00.87, besting last season's top time by nearly four seconds.

 

Bakun joined his freshmen classmates in opening some eyes with a powerful second place in the 100 Backstroke.  Following up his relay leg in the opening event, Bakun pounded out a 1:00.71 100 Back, a nearly two second improvement on last season's top time.

 

Sophomore newcomer Alex Braunstein announced his arrival with a pair of thundering freestyle races.  Braustein swam a ferocious anchor leg of the 200 Medley in 24.46 before taking fourth place in the 50 Free in 25.09.

 

Almost lost in all the rookie performances was the great improvement shown by junior John Feniello.  Feniello dropped .16 off his best 100 Free from last season to touch at 54.60 for third place.  He was even more impressive as the third leg of the 200 Free Relay when he posted a 24.70 time, the best for the Rangers on the day and a 1:30 second improvement of last season.

 

The star of the day was Davis, though.  The senior won the 100 Backstroke with an impressive 1:06.01, nearly a full second faster than her best time from last year when she placed eighth in the Landmark Conference.  Along with her good leg as the backstroke of the 200 Medley, Davis swam a 27.38 leg of the 200 Free Relay, the best of the Ranger times.  The women's team was missing four swimmers due to injury or commitments to other Ranger teams including sophomore Marissa Kraynak and junior sprinter Kati Eggert.

 

The Rangers get back into action next Friday with a trip to Ursinus.

 

Drew vs. Ramapo