Woolston Earns NCAA B Cut Qualifying Time as Saints advance to UNYSCSA Finals

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Tara Freeman
Senior captain Chris Woolston earned an NCAA B Cut qualifying time after preliminaries.

Feb. 26:  After Friday morning's preliminary races at the UNYSCSA Championships in Syracuse, NY, senior captain Chris Woolston has earned an NCAA B cut qualifying time in the 100 Meter Backstroke after leading off the 400 Medley Relay.  Along with Woolston's success, the St. Lawrence University Men's Swimming and Diving Team has advanced two swimmers and three relay teams to tonight's finals at Nottingham High School.

St. Lawrence's 200 Yard Freestyle relay team, composed of first-year Jason Dutra, senior Brandon Barone, junior Rob Sibley and Woolston, had a strong race to qualify for the consolation heat with a 10th place finish.  This group of swimmers dropped five seconds off their seed time, to finish in 1:27.95.

Sophomore Russ Newton swam an impressive 500 Yard Freestyle, finishing 18th to qualify for tonight's bonus consolation heat.  The East Lyme, CT native dropped six seconds off his seeded time, to finish with a time of 4:53.64.  Junior Jared Pellerin finished directly behind his teammate in 19th position and will also advance to the bonus consolation heat.  Pellerin dropped roughly eight seconds off his seeded time, to earn a new personal best of 4:53.90.  First-year Alex Root dropped nearly seven seconds off his seed time to finish 38th in the same event.

The Saints ‘A' 400 Yard Medley Relay team, composed of Woolston, Dally, Dutra and Sibley, also had a successful morning, dropping almost ten seconds off their seed time to finish in 8th place with a time of 3:33.63, advancing to tonight's final heat.  The ‘B' relay team, made up of sophomore Andrew Hayes, first-year Greg Obernesser, first-year Elias Schoen and Barone, followed in 19th place.  These swimmers dropped over 12 seconds off their seed time to finish in 2:43.00 and qualify for this evening's bonus consolation heat.

Obernesser and senior Stephen Dally finished 27th and 28th in the 200 Yard IM. Both swimmers dropped significant time off their collegiate personal records, as Obernesser swam seven seconds faster with a time of 2:04.07 and Dally swam six seconds faster with a time of 2:04.26.

In the 50 Yard Freestyle Event, Sibley picked up a 25th place finish, dropping almost a second off his personal record to earn a time of 22:35.  Barone finished 43rd in the same event.

The finals will kick off later this evening.