UNYSCSA Championships Recap

ITHACA, N.Y.—After Saturday's conclusion of the 2014 Upper New York State Collegiate Swimming Association Championships, Sarah Lawrence College men's swimmer Cameron Martinez (Aledo, Texas/Aledo) was awarded the Mark Randall Award as Swimmer of the Meet.

Martinez captivated the league's attention at last week's championship meet, placing among the top three performers in each of his individual events. After taking third place in the 200 yard individual medley, Martinez topped a field of 49 student-athletes to win the 200 yard butterfly in 49.28 seconds, setting an Ithaca College pool record in the process.

The sophomore's most impressive swim came on the third day of competition in the 200 yard butterfly. Entering the meet as the event's top seed, Martinez swam 1:49.65 in the preliminaries, breaking the league's championship meet record. In the final, he lowered his time to 1:48.69, winning the event by nearly two seconds. With the regular-season concluded, Martinez's 200 fly swim remains the fifth fastest in all of Division III for the 2013-14 season.

Following the meet, Martinez was presented with the Swimmer of the Meet award, as selected by nomination and voting by the association's head coaches.

"I'm extremely proud of Cameron's accomplishments," reflects Head Coach Eric Mitchell. "He set his goals early in the season and worked hard every day to reach them. It's great to see all the effort payoff in the end."

UNYSCSA is an association of 15 schools in New York and New Jersey. The membership includes several nationally-ranked programs, including No. 11 Stevens Institute and No. 18 Ithaca. The meet's other awards went to Ithaca's Grace Ayer who was tabbed women's Swimmer of the Meet, while Ithaca's Nikie Griesemer and Matt Morrison earned Diver of the Meet honors.

SLC is currently in the second year of its four-year transition to NCAA Division III, and as a condition of provisional status, student-athletes are not yet eligible to compete in national championship. Otherwise, Martinez would have received one of 260 invitations to compete at the 2014 NCAA Division III Men's Swimming Championships.

Notes Mitchell, "Cameron's leadership as captain has helped our team improve its level of competition. His ability to lead has motivated the entire team, and as a coach, that's what you look for in a captain."

Sarah Lawrence men's swimming concluded its most-successful season in its history. Eighteen of 19 school records were broken, while the Gryphons earned their first winning dual record (4-3). Martinez is the first SLC student-athlete of either gender to win an event at the UNYSCSA Championships.