Feb. 28, 2009
FAIRFAX, Va. -- The 2009 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Swimming and Diving Championships came to a close on Saturday night with the Old Dominion men's team ending competition in second place and the women taking seventh. The fourth and final day of action saw Old Dominion take another CAA Title, and record an NCAA "B" cut and four new ODU records.
The Monarchs were runner-ups to champion UNC-Wilmington, who won its eighth straight CAA title. The Seahawks won the title with 721 points, followed by ODU with 589 points, and Delaware in third with 491 points.
On the women's side, Towson took the title for the second straight season with 741 points, followed by William & Mary in second place with 526 points, and UNC-Wilmington in third with 476.5 points. The Lady Monarchs collected 309.5 points en-route to their seventh place finish.
Arni Arnason (Msfellsbaer, Iceland) won his third CAA title with his victory in the 200 breast. Arnason hit the wall in a time of 1:58.37 becoming the first ever Monarch to crack the two minute mark. Arnason's new ODU record was just .13 short of an NCAA "B" cut time. Three other Monarchs were also a members of the final heat in the 200 breast with all three capturing top 10 times in Monarch history. Johan Lundberg (Fjaras, Sweden) finished in third with a time of 2:02.51, followed by Kristian Ramkvist (Bjarred, Sweden) in fourth logging a time of 2:03.49 and Phillip Brooks (Smithfield, Va.) in fifth clocking in at 2:04.53. Josh Kinas (Reston, Va.) placed seventh with a time of 2:05.08.
Greg Bird (Northamptonshire, England) placed fifth in the 1650 free with a time of 15:51.15. Bird's time put his name sixth on the Monarchs top 10 list in the event.
Mikael Ramkvist (Bjarred, Sweden) placed fourth in the 200 back with a time of 1:48.36. Ramvist improved on his personal best by .02 of a second keeping his name second on ODU's top ten list in the 200 back.
Erla Haraldsdottir (Njardvik, Iceland) collected an NCAA "B" cut time with her second place finish in the 200 breast. She swam to a 2:14.72 time setting a new Lady Monarch benchmark and resetting Julie Cholish's 1986 record by nearly six seconds. Lauren Fiskus (Yorktown, Va.) joined Haraldsdottir in the finals. She placed seventh clocking in at 2:20.61 putting her name right behind Harladsdottir on the top 10 list.
In relay action, the 400 free relay squads on both the men's and women's sides set new ODU records. The men's team of Arnason, Chad Gangwer (Va. Beach, Va.), Lundberg, and Steven Loccisano (Fredericksburg, Va.) took second with a time of 3:00.47. They reset the Monarch record that was set in 1998 by 1.01 seconds. The women's 400 free relay team of Agata Nowak (Gorzow, Poland), Maddie Stiles (Fairfax, Va.), Liza Moiseeva (Moscow, Russia), and Emma Forbes (Peeskill, N.Y.) took seventh with a time of 3:28.88, besting the previous top time set in 1998 as well.
In diving action, Peter Stickl dove his way to a ninth place finish collecting ascore of 278.15.
2009 CAA Championships - Final Team Standings
Women - Team Scores Place School Points =================================================================== 1 TOWSON UNIVERSITY SWIMMING TOWS 741 2 WILLIAM AND MARY W&M 526 3 UNC-WILMINGTON UNCW 476.5 4 GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY GMU 468 5 JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY JMU 389 6 DELAWARE DEL 331 7 OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY ODU 309.5 8 NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY NU 224 9 DREXEL UNIVERSITY DREX 130
Men - Team Scores Place School Points =================================================================== 1 UNC-WILMINGTON UNCW 721 2 OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY ODU 589 3 DELAWARE DEL 491 4 WILLIAM AND MARY W&M 466 5 GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY GMU 456.5 6 DREXEL UNIVERSITY DREX 368 7 TOWSON UNIVERSITY SWIMMING TOWS 279.5