SUNY Oneonta Athletics

Men’s Basketball (3-21/2-15 SUNYAC)
Feb. 10^th vs. Oswego, L 55-68
The visiting Oswego Lakers opened the game with a three-point basket and never looked back en route to a 68-55 win last Friday versus host Oneonta State. The Lakers entered the game as the #2 team in the East Region.

Oneonta made a couple of runs in the second half, but could never close the gap to less than 10 points. A three pointer by Frankie Kelly (Brewster/Kennedy Catholic) at 15:34 cut the Lakers lead to 11 points at 40-29. Oswego regained control and began pulling away and led by 18 points with just over five minutes remaining in the game.

Sophomore Dan Lee (Ballston Lake/Shenendehowa) was the other Red Dragon to reach double figures with 11 points.
 
Feb. 11^th vs. Cortland, L 51-73
The Oneonta State men's basketball team ran into a hot-shooting SUNY Cortland team today as they faltered at home 73-51. Freshman Kelly was the only Oneonta player to reach double figures with 11 points.

The rival Red Dragons finished the game shooting 57 percent from the field including an even 50 percent (11-22) from behind the arc.

Oneonta kept within striking distance, but couldn't get any closer than eight points, which they were with 12:38 remaining in the game before Cortland put the game away with a 19-6 run.
 
Feb. 14^th vs. Potsdam, W 71-57
Oneonta State freshman Kelly continues to be a shining light for the Red Dragons men's basketball team. The rookie led Oneonta past SUNY Potsdam last Tuesday evening 71-57 with his season and collegiate high of 21 points. Kelly hit 9-of-10 shots from the floor in the game while collecting four steals.

As a team, Oneonta finished the game shooting 48 percent, but was over 50 percent for the greater part of the contest. They did hit 6-of-14 from behind the arc including three from sophomore Lee, who scored 11 of his 12 points in the opening half.

Oneonta led by as many as 25 points in the second half when sophomore Alby Skrelji (Hastings on Hudson/Hastings) hit a free throw with 7:24 left in the game. Skrelji scored a season high 10 points off the bench for Oneonta as the Red Dragons bench out scored Potsdam's 24-14.

Oneonta State raced out to a 16-4 lead en route to a 34-22 halftime advantage. The Red Dragons shot 51 percent in the first half and hit 4-of-8 from behind the arc.
 
Women’s Basketball (16-7/14-3 SUNYAC)
 
Feb. 10^th vs. Oswego, W 63-40
After a sluggish first half shooting performance, the Oneonta State women's basketball team put together a scintillating second half en route to a 63-40 win. Senior Samantha Szkotak (New York Mills/New York Mills) led the way with 14 of her game high 20 points in the second half. Szkotak finished with a double-double as she added 11 rebounds.

Oneonta came out of the break hitting its first six shots including two from behind the arc to build its halftime lead to 37-22. Szkotak had six points during the opening 14-2 run to get herself into double digits.

Oneonta led by as many as 24 points just inside 10 minutes left in the contest. Senior Madison Slagle (Rome/Rome Catholic) added 14 points for Oneonta.

Both teams struggled to find the basket in the first half as both teams shot below 26 percent from the field. Oneonta did have a decided advantage on the boards 29-17 with 15 of Oneonta's rebounds coming on the offensive end. There were six ties and 10 lead changes in the opening 20 minutes with the hosts taking the last lead change into halftime 23-20. Slagle led all scorers in the first half with nine points.
 
Feb. 11^th vs. Cortland, W 72-62
After a frantically-paced opening twenty minutes of action, the Oneonta State women's basketball team settled in and maintained its first half cushion en route to a 72-62. Seniors Szkotak and Slagle posted matching 19's in leading the home Red Dragons to the victory last Saturday afternoon.

As much as Oneonta tried to put the game out of reach in the second half, Cortland kept coming back. Deadly shooting from long range kept Cortland close.

Oneonta led by as many as 17 points on two occasions in the second half and Cortland got as close as nine points with :32 remaining in the game.

The day's first half resembled a track meet with continuous end-to-end action. Both teams were not shy about where their shots were being taken from as the two teams combined to take 24 three-point shots in the opening twenty minutes of play. Cortland took more (14), but Oneonta hit more (7) en route to building a 43-31 lead at halftime. Slagle (13 points) and Szkotak (12 points) we're already in double figures.

There were nine lead changes in the game, all coming in the first half. The last lead change came at the 6:20 mark on a Slagle layup, which gave Oneonta a 26-24 lead.
 
Feb. 14^th at Potsdam, L 51-57
The Oneonta State women’s basketball team fell on the road last Tuesday evening to the Bears of Potsdam, 57-51, to drop to second in the conference, just ½ game behind Buffalo State.
 
The Red Dragons and Bears battled throughout the game with Potsdam taking a five point lead into halftime 30-25. Oneonta battled back to take the lead with 18 minutes left in the second half, but the Bears didn’t back down. The lead changed hands 3 more times before Potsdam took the lead for good.
 
Oneonta had taken the lead with 2:31 left on a Szkotak three-point basket. Potsdam took the final lead with 1:25 left.
 
Szkotak led Oneonta with the Red Dragons with 16 points.
 
Men’s Swimming & Diving
 
Feb. 8 – 11^th at SUNYAC Championships (3^rd place with 415 points)
The Oneonta State men's swimming & diving team is moving on up as the 2012 SUNYAC championships came to a close last Saturday night at Erie Community College's Flickinger Center.  The men finished 3rd overall with 415 points, which was its best showing at the championships since being brought back as a varsity sport in 1998. 

Highlighting the men's performances during the three-day championships was the breaking of 12 individual and three relay school records along with bringing home three individual and two relay conference champions.  The Red Dragons were led by junior Alex Miller (Oneonta/Oneonta), sophomore Ryan Walsh (Wingdale/Arlington) and freshmen Daniel Donaghy (Holtsville/Sachem East) and Colton Roe (Middletown/Pine Bush).  They also had strong contributions from junior Alex Vaughn (Windsor/Windsor) and sophomore diver Jermaine Miller (Elmira/Southside).

Walsh brought home two individual SUNYAC titles while being on both conference champion relays.  On Friday, he picked up his first with his victory in the 100-yard butterfly (51.24).  He successfully defended his conference championship in the 200-yard butterfly, breaking his own school record with a time of 1:55.39.  During the men's win in the 400-yard medley relay, he broke his own school record in the 100 fly when he clocked a 50.74 in his leg of the relay.  For the championships, Walsh collected a total of 79.5 points for the men.

Oneonta's third individual conference champion was Miller. Miller, who led the Red Dragons with 85.5 points, won the 100-yard backstroke with a SUNYAC meet and NCAA “B” cut time of 51.37 on Friday night.  He was the anchor leg of both winning relays setting a school record in his 100-yard freestyle leg of the 400 medley relay.  In addition to breaking his own record in the 100 back, he also broke his own school record in the 200-yard backstroke with his time of 1:54.41 in placing 4th in Saturday's final.

Newcomers Roe and Donaghy certainly impacted Oneonta's overall team performance at this year's championships.  The two combined to score 118 points for Oneonta in their first SUNYAC experience.  Roe was part of both winning relays while eclipsing the NCAA “B” cut standard in the 100 back when he touched in 51.56 during his leg of the 400 medley relay on the first day of competition.

Donaghy was on the winning 800-yard freestyle relay and was Oneonta's top distance freestyler during the championships.  In yesterday's final of the 1,650-yard freestyle, he broke two school records during the same event.  His time of10:13.48 at the 1,000 split set a new school record while his final time of 16:49.70 shattered the record in the event by 23 seconds.  Donaghy finished the meet with two top-6 place finishes overall in individual events.


J. Miller scored 29 points in the diving events for Oneonta.  He was 4th in the 1-meter event and 5th in the 3-meter event.

Vaughn set a school record of 59.57 in his 100-yard breast stroke leg of the winning 400 medley relay and ended up collecting 29 points overall.
 
Women’s Swimming & Diving
 
Feb. 8^th – 11^th at SUNYAC Championships, 5^th place with 320 points
The Oneonta State women's swimming & diving team is moving on up as the 2012 SUNYAC championships came to a close last night at Erie Community College's Flickinger Center.  The women tied its best finish ever of 5th place after collecting 320 points. 
 
The future is certainly bright on the women's side for Oneonta as they were led by a talented group of underclassmen.  The Red Dragons top five scorers for the championships included a junior, two sophomores and a pair of rookies.  The women came away from the championships with a total of seven individual records and three relay records.

Leading the way was freshman Hillary Chocko (Queensbury/Queensbury), who ended up as the leading scorer for the women with a total of 45.5 points.  She set two individual school records while being a part of all three record setting relays.  Her school records were set in the 200-yard freestyle and the 100 fly, both set during her legs of the 800 free relay and the 400 medley relays respectively.  Her best individual finish was 12th in the 100 fly.

Scoring 37 points was sophomore Melissa Erickson (Silver Spring, MD/Academy of the Holy Cross), who set two individual records of her own during the championships.  In placing 6th in the 500-yard freestyle on Friday she broke a six-year old record in the event with a new time of 5:17.26.  She broke another six-year old record in the 1,650 free when she swam a time of 18:10.49 in the final yesterday, which placed her 4th in the event.

Junior Kristen Magliola (Shoreham/Shoreham Wading River) broke her own record in the 200-yard breast stroke by .03 (2:32.82) while being a part of the 400 and 800 free relays that set school records.  She finished the championships with 39 points.

Newcomer Carly Cahill (Troy/Troy) finished the championships with 40 points while setting an individual school record and swimming a leg on the two free relays that set school records.

Sophomore Lindsey Molfino (Jamestown/Jamestown) contributed 37.5 points to the women's total.  Molfino's best individual finish was 7th in the 100 back where she recorded a time 1:02.38.  She also swam a leg on both the 200 medley and 800 freestyle relays that set school records.
 
Men’s Indoor Track & Field
 
Feb. 10^th & 11^th at BU Valentine Invitational and the  Kane Invitational
The men’s indoor track and field team split the squad this past weekend and went to the Boston University Valentine Invitational or the Robert J. Kane Invitational hosted by Cornell University.
 
At the Valentine Invitational, which had runners from Division I to Division III, junior Sean Bernstein (Baldwinsville/Baldwinsville) continued to shine. He finished 5^th in the 200m dash with a time of 21.49, which is a personal best for him this year. In the 60m dash, he completed the race in 6.94, also a personal best, and came in 8^th place.
 
Freshman Rob Farrell (Carmel/Mahopac) finished in the top twenty as he placed 14^th in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.61.
 
The Kane Invite at Cornell University also brought some personal bests this past weekend.  Freshman J.D. Roth (Pearl River/Nanuet) set a new personal record in the weight throw. He heaved it a distance of 13.46m (44’ 2”) to finish in 11^th place at the meet.
 
Other top 20 finishers were senior Chris Rollo (Clarence/Clarence), juniors Dustin Cox (Pulaski/Pulaski) and Ian Kelley (Oneonta/Oneonta), and freshman Patrick Weinert (Schenevus/Schenevus). Rollo threw the shot put a distance of 12.90m (42’ 4”) to finish 16^th while Kelley finished 20^th in the weight throw event with a hurl of 12.62m (41’ 5”). Cox placed 20^th in the 60m hurdles (9.15) and 15^th in the long jump with a jump of 6.26m (20’ 6.50”). Weinert finished 18^th in the weight throw with a heave of 12.92m (42’ 4.75”).
 
Women’s Indoor Track & Field
 
Feb. 10^th & 11^th at BU Valentine Invitational and the Kane Invitational
The women’s indoor track & field team split the squad this past weekend and sent some to the Boston University Valentine Invitational or the Robert J. Kane Invitational hosted by Cornell University.
 
The Red Dragons had 6 top twenty finishers at the Kane Invitational led by senior Sarah Timmons (Schodack/Maple Hill), as she placed in the weight throw and in the shot put.  Her heave of 17.49m (57’ 4.75”) in the weight throw helped her take 1^st place and was almost 2 meters ahead of the second place finisher. She finished in 7^th place in the shot put with a toss of 11.43m (37’ 6”).
 
Juniors Kate Parsons (Valatie/Ichabod Crane) and Jennifer Wagner (Utica/Whitesboro) finished 13^th and 17^th respectively in their events.  In the weight throw, Parsons tossed it a distance of 12.67m (41’ 7”). Wagner ran the 60m hurdles in a time of 10.23.
 
The final top twenty finisher was freshman Tara Duggan (Franklin Square/H. Frank Carey) who completed the 60m hurdles in 10.37 for a 20^th place finish.