Bobby Martinez – Sports Writer
NEW HAVEN — Owls swimming and diving head coach, Tim Quill, added his 10th Northeast-10 Conference title into his trophy case as his men’s diving team took home first place honors.
Junior, Raymond Cswerko, was awarded Men’s Swimming Championship Most Valuable Athlete for the second year in a row after setting numerous records. Cswerko broke the 400 IM swim with a time of 3:53:64 breaking the previous record of 4:00:58. His second record was the 100 meter backstroke with a time of 54:81. A final record he managed to break during the NE-10 Conference was the 200 M breaststroke with a time of 1:59:15 where in fact, all were good for top six this season.
Senior, Jacob Loschiavo, was a part of the 1650 yard freestyle alongside Daniel Gallup where they both finished in the top five. Loschiavo finished with a time of 16:39.98, and Gallup swam to the finish line with a time of 16:56.73. Loschiavo said after the NE-10 Conference Championships, he is happy that his team was able to continue their success as far as winning another championship.
“You know for four years,” Loschiavo said, “to cap it off with another victory it feels great.”
Senior, Kyle Pietro, who won the NE-10 Conference 200 medley relay, said finishing out on top is the best feeling no matter what when it’s all said and done.
“Winning never felt so good,” he said, “to being another trophy back home here at the Hutchinson Auditorium four years in a row so add another one up to the banner. It feels great.”
As for the women’s swimming and diving team, heading into the Ne-10 Championships, Quill said his team was short on swimmers but he knows his team would compete hard regardless. With a 11-year consecutive reign of winning the NE-10 championship, the lady Owls came in second place behind Assumption College (818 points). The Owls finished with a combined score of 684.
Senior, Anna Pleban, swam in the 200 yard butterfly and finished second with a time of 2:11.13. She said despite her team not finishing in first place, she couldn’t be any happier in her team because they competed really hard from start to finish.
“I am definitely proud of my entire team,” she said. “Everyone poured their hearts out in their races and I am so proud as a senior, as a captain, it just made me happy just knowing everyone gave it their all. Just winning the last relay was the cherry on the top and it feels great.”
Junior, Hannah Olson, finished in the top five in the 200 yard backstroke with a time 2:09:91. Olson said despite her team being undermanned, she is happy in the way they competed.
“I think our team swam their hearts out this week,” she said. “They did so well for only having 13 swimmers and two divers, we raced amazing compared to Assumption because they had way more girls than us so I think we did well.”
Next up for Quill and his team is the Metropolitan Championships in Piscataway, NJ. This event begins on February 14, 2014 where it will be a chance for Quill to add to his impressive resume. As head coach of the Owls, he has managed to build one of the best programs in the nation. He is a 17-time Northeast-10 Conference Coach of the Year, six-time Metropolitan Conference Coach of the Year.
Quill, who is both men’s and women’s head coach, won 19 Northeast-10 Championships from 2003-08, 2011-13 for the men’s teams. As for the woman’s, they won from 2003-13 and seven Metropolitan Conference championships (2003-06, men; 2005-07.
As his team prepared for the three day Metropolitan Championships, there will be a total of 20 teams competing. There will be numerous events such as 400 medley and 200 freestyle relay team, 500 yard freestyle, 200 yard freestyle relay team.
