Both Bridgeport Men's And Women's Swim Teams Take Seond Place At 2014 Metropolitan Conference Championships

Piscataway, N.J.-The University of Bridgeport swim teams both finished second at the 2014 Metropolitan Conference Championship Meet which wrapped up on Sunday night at the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center on the campus of Rutgers University, On the final evening of action, UB won a total of six events to give Purple Knights a final total of 21 first places out of 38 swimming events at this year's Metropolitan Conference Championship Meet.  The UB women finished with a total of 1067 points to take second behind first place LIU Post (1355 points).  The College of New Jersey took third in the women's standings with 893 points.  The Bridgeport men scored 1148 points and finished behind first place, the College of New Jersey (1455 points).  Rowan took third on the men's side with 983 points. The UB men finished as the top Division II men's squad at the event.

Junior Adeline Martin (Antibes, France) and Ruben Gimenez (Sr. Burgos, Spain) each won their third individual events of the championships on Sunday night.  Martin turned in a record-setting winning performance in the women's 200-Yard Breaststroke in a time of 2:15.74.  Gimenez won the men's 100-Yard Freestyle in a time of 44.45, as he topped teammate Vladislav Paskas (Jr., Zrenjanin, Serbia) who finished second in a time of 45.16. Martin and Gimenez were named selected as the Women's and Men's Swimmers of the 2014 Metropolitan Conference Championship Meet for their outstanding swims throughout the weekend.

Other individual winners for Bridgeport on Sunday were Tatiana Shepel (So., Moscow, Russia) in the women's 100-Yard Freestyle (50.99), and Vyacheslav Fattakhov (Sr., Almatt, Kazakhstan) in the men's 200-Yard Breaststroke (2:00.85). Shepel was named the 2014 Metropolitan Conference Championship Rookie of the Meet.

The Purple Knights closed out the meet on Sunday, as they did on both Friday and Saturday by winning the final relay event of the evening.  On Sunday, both squads captured the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay.  For the women, Tatiana Shepel, Adeline Martin, Alina Sotnikova (Jr., Riga, Latvia) and Armony Dumur (Sr., Amiens, France) grabbed first place with a time of 3:25.29.  On the men's side, Ruben Gimenez, Vyacheslav Fattakhov, Ivan Sangines (Jr., Barcelona, Spain) and team captain Oscar Pereiro (Sr., Arzua, Spain) won the event in a time of 2:58.84.

All of the Purple Knights winning times on Sunday were NCAA "B" cut performances.      

Other quality individual performances were turned in on Sunday for the UB women by Jaimy Lee Taskin (So., Noordeijkerhout, Holland) in the 200-Yard Backstroke (Second Place, NCAA "B" cut time 2:04.26), Alina Sotnikova in the 100 Free (Third Place, NCAA "B" cut time 52.61 and Armony Dumur, who took second place in the 200-Yard Butterfly with and NCAA "B" cut time of 2:03.93.

On the men's side, Matheus Lima (Jr., Santos, Brazil) took third in the 200-Yard Backstroke with an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:50.76 plus Didac Matsuyama (So., Barcelona, Spain) was second in the 200-Yard Butterfly (1:49.72) and freshman Antonio Nunez (Oviedo, Spain) took third in the same event (1:50.91), both NCAA "B" cut swims.

The Purple Knights, under the direction of head coach Brad Flood who was named 2014 Metropolitan Conference Men's Coach of the Year, will now send several qualifiers on both the men's and women's sides to the 2014 NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving National Championship meet that will be held in Geneva. Ohio from March 12 through 15.