St. Mary's Men's Swimming Finishes Second at 2012 CAC Championship Meet

Thor Petersen

St. Mary's City, Md. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland men's swim team snapped its three-year long streak of finishing third at the Capital Athletic Conference Men's and Women's Swimming Championships with the Seahawks' second-place finish at this year's championship meet as competition wrapped up Sunday night.  This is the first time since 2002 that St. Mary's has finished second at CACs.

Two more school records fell on Sunday as junior Cameron Hedquist (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) and first-year Dylan Cope (Scottsdale, Ariz./Chaparral) each picked up their second individual records of the meet.

Cope set his record in the morning trials as he notched a 1:55.03 for the second fastest time in the preliminaries and to knock off current assistant coach Julio Zarate's last record on the board, surpassing his mark of 1:57.40 from 2002.  Cope then scored All-CAC honors with a second-place finish in the event in 1:56.73.

Hedquist also registered his second school record of the weekend in the preliminaries of the 100 freestyle as he posted a 47.10 for the fastest time in the morning trials and to break his own mark from last year (47.21).  Hedquist then finished second in the event in 47.44.

First-year Jackson Holden (Valley Lee, Md./Great Mills) claimed second place in the 1650 freestyle in 16:54.36 while senior Joe Kelly (Ellicott City, Md./Mt. Hebron) placed fourth in 17:05.82 and junior Chris Coghill (Jefferson, Md./Brunswick) came in seventh in 17:49.63.

Junior Billy DeBoissiere (Columbia, Md./Atholton) garnered second team all-conference honors in the 200 breaststroke in 2:09.06, out-touching Salisbury University's Jesse Cunningham (North Potomac, Md.) by 0.03 seconds. 

Sophomore Thor Petersen (Germantown, Md./Northwest) claimed a second-place finish in the 200 butterfly in 1:58.49 while first-year Bobby Witkop (Chevy Chase, Md./Bethesda-Chevy Chase) took fourth in 1:59.79.

The Seahawks nabbed a second-place finish in the 400 free relay as the quartet of Hedquist, DeBoissiere, Petersen and Cope put forth a time of 3:12.31.

University of Mary Washington captured its 18th overall and 12th straight conference title while junior Nick Eckhoff (Williamsburg, Va./Jamestown) picked up the CAC Men's Swimmer of the Year award and first-year Alex Anderson (Vienna, Va./James Madison) garnered CAC Rookie of the Year honors.  Hood College's 12-year head coach Don Feinberg was tabbed the CAC Coach of the Year for the first-time ever.

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS (through 18 events): 1. Mary Washington, 969 … 2. St. Mary's, 549 … 3. York, 482.5 … 4. Salisbury, 441.5 … 5. Hood, 242 … 6. Marymount, 227 … 7. Frostburg State, 88.