Swimming

ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. - It was another fantastic day for the Salisbury University swimming program as the Sea Gulls concluded the 2008 Capital Athletic Conference championships on Sunday night at St. Mary's (Md.) College. The Sea Gull men repeated with a third-place finish, matching last season's mark, while the women placed fourth overall, a spot higher than last season.

"We swam out of our minds this weekend," said SU coach Jill Stephenson. "We had more swimmers, in program history, swim in the evening finals. We couldn't have asked for a better way to end our season."

In all the Sea Gulls had six All-CAC performances, broke 10 men's school records and two women's records in three days in the 36-event championships.

On Sunday, sophomore Mike Ferrari became the first Salisbury swimmer in seven years to win an event at the CAC championships. Ferrari won the 200 yard breaststroke with a school record time of 2:12.37. His time took five-seconds off the old mark of 2:17.27 (set in 2005) held by current SU assistant coach Ryan Kooy. Ferrari earned two All-CAC honors this weekend with his performances in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

The Sea Gulls had two freshmen set new 1,000 yard freestyle school marks as they competed in the 1,650 free on Sunday. Freshman Becky Akers broke her current school records in the 1,000 (11:19.70) and 1,650 (18:39.26) with times of 11:06.44 and 18:23.67 on Sunday. She finished third in the finals to earn All-CAC honors. Fellow freshman Drew Robichaud set a new school mark in the 1,000 with a time of 10:33.34 which is better than the 1999 mark of 10:33.91 set by Brendan Roddy. Robichaud finished fifth in the 1,650 free with a time of 17:29.43.

The other All-CAC performers for the Sea Gulls are senior Cole Mangum in the 50 free, the women's 800 free relay team of junior Laura Kordzikowski, sophomore Angie Hammond, sophomore Maureen Gillespie and junior Raienne South and the men's 200 free relay team of junior Benjamin Overholt, senior Ross Spangler, Mangum and junior Brad Buckley.

The SU men's 400 free relay team of Overholt, Spangler, Mangum and Buckley set a new school mark as they finished fourth with a time of 3:14.87 which is better than last year's mark of 3:15.99.

University of Mary Washington swept the men's and women's titles for the eighth consecutive season. The Eagles have won every single women's title since the conference began 18 years ago.