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Home > Men's Swimming & Diving > Archive > 2006-2007 > December 2, 2006 - at U.S. Open - Day Three

December 2, 2006 - at U.S. Open - Day Three

December 2, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Swimming
Rider at U.S. Open – Day Three

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.—Two Bronc relays and three swimmers competed in individual events for Rider on the final day of the U.S. Swimming Championships, hosted by Purdue University Saturday afternoon.  “We faced a huge adjustment swimming the 50 meter Olympic sized pool,” said head coach Steve Fletcher.  “We adjusted well and held our own against the top competition in the world.”

The men’s 400 meter free relay of senior Brandon Modrov (Smithtown, N.Y./Hauppauge), senior Andy French (Richfield, Minn./Richfield Senior), junior Peter Starr (Boyertown, Pa./Boyertown Area Senior) and freshman Scott Player (Chino Hills, Calif./Ruben S. Ayala) finished 24th with a time of 3:43.45, setting a new Rider long course record.

In the women’s 400 meter free relay, senior Lauren Urbanski (Lansdowne, Pa./Upper Darby), senior Courtney Clark (Broomall, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara), sophomore Priscilla Modrov (Smithtown, N.Y./Hauppauge) and freshman Kellyanne Tomasula (Sussex, N.J./Vernon Township) placed 29th with a time of 4:07.74, setting a new Rider long course record.  Priscilla Modrov led off that relay, coming with a 100 meter free time of 1:00.03, also setting a new Rider long course record.

“I am really pleased with how the team is responded,” Fletcher added.  “Brandon [Modrov] didn’t swim all of his events due to an injury and while he was able to swim on the relays, we held him out of the individual events so that we won’t lose him for the conference meets coming up.”

Tomasula finished 56th in the 100 meter back (107.49) and 93rd in the 100 meter fly with a time of 1:00.41, the number two all-time Rider long course time in the event.

“Adjusting from the short course yards to the long course meters changes the way you handle the race,” Fletcher added.  “You pace yourself different, you train using different techniques and after the first day, we have really dropped our times after making those adjustments.”

Urbanski placed 66th in the 200 meter fly with a time of 2:25.16, setting a new Rider long course record with Priscilla Modrov placing 66th in the 200 meter IM 2:26.34.

“Being here is a motivator for the swimmers,” Fletcher added.  “There are over a thousand swimmers, representing 27 countries and Rider is part of that.  It speaks volumes to where the program has come from and gives us a chance to measure where we want the program to go from here.  That the great part about having young swimmers out here, they see the opportunity to compete on a world stage and set the goal of getting better at their events.”

“The swimmers earned the opportunity to compete on the world stage,” Fletcher added.  “That’s why we focus so much on the year round training and the long course training in the summer, for these types of opportunities.”

“Making the finals in this meet would be incredible,”  added Fletcher.  Making the top 24 would be amazing considering who we are up against.  We held our own, learned a lot about what it takes to take the next step and will use that in our upcoming competition.”

Off for break and winter training, the Broncs return to the pool January 13 at Loyola.

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