Lancaster, PA - The SUNY Oneonta Red Dragon's men' s swimming team traveled 240 miles to Lancaster, PA.  There they spent the weekend competing against eight other quality opponents from a variety of colleges in the Northeast.  The Red Dragons finished  seventh out of the nine teams entered in the Franklin and Marshall Invitational.    Stevens Institute of NJ dominated the field finishing first in both the men and women's division.

The Red Dragons had many highlights beginning with a top eight finish in the Men's 1650  yard freestyle where junior Stephen Penteck (Holbrook/Sachem North) competed against 26 other contenders finishing with a time of 17:18.21, which was less than two seconds behind his closest competitor from Montclair State of NJ.  The level of competition was outstanding as that time was still approx 1 minute and 40 seconds behind the first place finisher from Stevens Institute of Technology. 

Finishing in the top eight of the men's 400 yard medley relay was senior Colton Roe (Middletown/Pine Bush),  freshman  Zeke Brynin (Pleasantville/Pleasantville) and juniors Lucas Santiago (Amsterdam/Amsterdam) and Anthony Franchi (Canajoharie/Canajoharie) timing in at 1:54.15 just less than two seconds behind the challengers from Washington and Lee University of Va.  Roe followed this up with a top 20 finish in the men's 50 yard freestyle preliminaries against 56 other racers in that event.   Roe had a respectable weekend by later finishing fifth in the final of the men's 100 yard backstroke with a time of 53.41.  Continuing in the competition Roe finished third in the finals of the men's 200 yard backstroke.

Santiago was impressive in the final of the men's 400 yard individual medley finishing third with a great time of 4:14.02 more than four seconds ahead of his seeded time.  Further on in the competition Santiago made it to the finals of the men's 200 yard butterfly where he finished a respectable fifth touching the wall at 1:57.58 bettering his preliminary score by almost two seconds.  Santiago then was successful by getting to the finals of the men's 200 yard butterfly and the 200 yard individual medley.

Brynin also advanced to the "B" finals of the men's 200 yard breaststroke and winning that event with a time of 2:11.58.   In the "B" final of the Men's 100 yard breaststroke Brynin finished on top of the field with a time of 58.87 bettering his finish in the preliminary round by over two seconds. 

Also highlighting the weekend for the Red Dragon's was senior Daniel Donaghy (Holtsville/Sachem East) in the men's 200 yard freestyle finishing 14th in a field of 41 swimmers coming in at 1:49.70  only .34 behind the entrant from St. Vincent of MA and just under seven seconds behind the winner of the event from Stevens Institute of NJ. 

In the men's 800 yard freestyle relay Roe, Stephen Penteck (Holbrook/Sachem North), senior Kevin Flessa (Middletown/Middletown) and Donaghy finished in the top half of the field in ninth place when they completed the race with a time of 7:20.33.  Also finishing in the top half of the men's 200 yard medley relay was junior Joseph Morgan (Cornwall/Cornwall), Brynin, Santiago and Flessa with a time of 1:40.42 almost nine seconds behind the first place finishers from Steven's Institute.

With a Thanksgiving break ahead this will give the Red Dragons  sometime to rest before they compete at Hamilton College for an invitational event beginning on Friday, December 5th at 4 PM.