Syracuse, NY - Following three days of competiton at the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association (NYSWCAA) swim meet, the Clarkson University Swim team came back to Potsdam with a pile of new marks and a need for an eraser for the Clarkson Swim Record Book.
A three-week layoff from competition didn't keep the team from posting solid results on the first day of the annual NYSWCAA meet at Nottingham High School as freshman Laura Shaddak (Oswego, NY) broke a school-record in the 50 freestyle.
Shaddak came within two one-hundredths of a second of breaking a record in the 50 freestyle during her qualifying run, but then bettered the mark by three one-hundredths of a second with a time of 25.50 in the shortest event of the meet. The mark broken by Shaddak was a three-year-old standard swam by Roni Wolak in 2004.
The Knights also gained points in the 200 freestyle relay as Kristen Larsen (Fort Edward, NY), Shaddak, Emily MacWilliams (Watkins Glen, NY), and Katherine Gawrys (Ballston Spa, NY) came within a second of setting a new Clarkson record. The team finished 11th at the event with a time of 1:43.39. Clarkson also finished 11th in the 400 medley relay with a time of 4:28.49. MacWilliams, Anne Parken (Painted Post, NY), Robyn Stone (Potsdam, NY) and Katie Bragan (Auburn, NY) participated in that event.
On day two, freshman Laura Shaddak broke a Clarkson University Swim record at the NYSWCAA meet. However, this time the mark wasn't a three-year-old standard, but an 18-year-old record.
After breaking a three-year-old record on Thursday in the 50 freestyle, Shaddak came back with a 2:02.92 finish in the 200 freestyle, setting another new Clarkson standard, this time surpassing an 18-year-old mark by Laura Gregory. Gregory's name would be erased from the Clarkson record book in another category later in the day as the Knights' 800 freestyle relay team broke another 18-year-old mark by over two seconds in the final relay event of Friday's schedule. Shaddak, MacWilliams, Katie Bragan, and Gawrys swam the race in 8:14.12, besting the previous mark of 8:16.24. More amazingly, both Shaddak and Gawrys surpassed the new mark posted by Shaddak just a few hours earlier in their personal 200 splits.
In other events on Friday, the Golden Knights finished 12th in the 200 medley relay with a time of 2:00.05 with Stone, Larsen, Gawrys and Shaddak swimming the race. Gawrys finished 16th in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:04.23, Larsen claimed 19th in the 100 breast stroke in 1:13.18 and Parken was 22nd in the same event.
The final day of competition didn't see the same amount of records broken, but a number of swimmers came close in challenging several marks. Shaddak came within sixteen-hundredths of a second of breaking the 100 freestyle mark at Clarkson, finishing 18th at the event. Parken also swam within half a second of the 200 breast stroke mark, placing 19th in the event. In the 1650 freestyle, Katie Bragan wasn't close to the school-record, but still finished a respectable 19th while Gawrys did likewise in the 200 butterfly.
The final event of the meet saw the Knights set a new standard for the third straight day, however. Shattering their qualifying time, Shaddak, Katie Bragan, MacWilliams and Gawrys placed ninth in the 400 freestyel relay, breaking the previous Clarkson record by more than four seconds with a time of 3:44.25, easily winning the heat.