Saint Peter's University Athletics had some incredible moments on the playing surface this past academic year and put together a series of incredible moments that instilled great pride.
To honor the phenomenal student-athletes and all they accomplished in 2021-22, in the month of July, the athletics department will look back at some of the most memorable moments every Tuesday and Thursday.
Setting the Scene
The Saint Peter's men's and women's swimming and diving teams headed into the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship in February looking to make waves, literally. The Peacocks headed into the weekend with strong expectations after a solid year in the pool.
The first day of swimming consisted of only qualifying races and saw the Peacocks advance in six total races.
Strong on Day Two
- Junior Luke Cillie followed up his school record-breaking performance in the 200-yard individual medley (IM) at the 2020 MAAC Championships with his second consecutive silver medal in the event to headline the Peacocks' efforts on the second day of the league's marquee meet. Cillie now has four MAAC medals all-time to his name after swimming his fastest 200 IM of the season (1:48.83) to secure second place, 1.68 seconds back of the winning time.
- Senior Yann Le Gall also produced a points-scoring effort in the 50-yard freestyle, while the men's 200-yard freestyle relay team broke a school-record during the finals. Le Gall finished in 15th place in the men's 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.02 after securing a place in an event final for his third consecutive league championships.
- The quartet of Cillie, Le Gall, Oleksiy Polishchuk and David Dolgitzer broke a seven-year-old school record in the men's 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:22.57, winning their heat and finishing in sixth place overall.
- The women's 200-yard freestyle relay team (Natalie Davis, Noelle Sprenkle, Devyn Hantgin, Evangelia Vasilakis) added points to their team's total with a season-best time of 1:42.19 to finish 10th.
History On Day Three
- SPU produced its best evening at the MAAC Championships since 2015 on day three earning its first individual title and first women's top three medal in seven years as part of a four-medal haul day.
- A now five-time MAAC medalist, Cillie scored his first-ever gold with a career-fastest time in the 100-yard breaststroke, while senior Natalie Davis took home a bronze medal in her signature 100-yard backstroke. Cillie, a junior from Cape Town, South Africa, already had three MAAC silvers and a bronze to his name coming into Friday night, but finally stood atop the podium thanks to a career-best 53.99 time in the 100 Breast. Davis had strong backstroke performances throughout the season, and continued that form on Friday by smashing her career-best time in the 100-yard backstroke by nearly two seconds – touching the wall at 56.98 in the final to finish in third place.
- Graduate student Oleksiy Polishchuk came through with two medals on the day – both sixth-place finishes in the 400-yard individual medley (4:03.88) and the 100-yard breaststroke (56.07).
- Senior Thomas Granet qualified for Friday night's finals in the 400-yard individual medley, scoring points for the Peacocks with his 13th-place finish (4:08.12).
- The women's 400-yard medley relay team (Davis, Devyn Hantgin, Evangelia Vasilakis, Noelle Sprenkle) posted a season-best time (4:12.87) to finish in 10th place.
- The men's 400-yard medley relay team (Yanis Benadouda, JT Funari, Ethan Riozzi-Bodine, Brendan Vieira) produced the Peacocks' eighth point-scoring effort of the evening with a ninth-place finish (3:40.19).
Closing the Meet with a Bang
- Cillie continued his stellar 2022 MAAC Swimming and Diving Championships with his third medal of the meet – matching his total from the previous league championships in 2020. His performance was part of a three-medal day that helped the Peacocks finish with eight medals at the meet. Cillie came within one-hundredth of a second of his previous Saint Peter's school record (44.81) in the preliminaries before breaking it in the final with a time of 44.73 to take the silver medal in the event – his third of the championships. He finished no lower than second place in any event and now owns three individual school records (100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard individual medley).
- Le Gall scored his first medal of the MAAC Championships with a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle (45.70).
- Polishchuk earned his third medal of the MAAC Championships with his sixth-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:04.28).
- Davis made her second final of the championships, scoring points for the Peacocks with a ninth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke (2:05.71).
- The men's 400-yard freestyle relay team (Cillie, Le Gall, Polishchuk, Dolgitzer) came within one-hundredth of a second of a medal – finishing in fourth with a time of 3:02.10.
- The women's 400-yard freestyle relay team (Davis, Sprenkle, Hantgin,Vasilakis) posted a season-best (3:44.90) to finish in 10th place.
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