Dragon TalesOfficial Newsletter

of Oneonta State Athletics

Volume I, No. 2 Winter, 1999-00

ONEONTA FIELDS GETTING FACE LIFTWomen’s Basketball and Women’s Swimming & Diving

Highlight Winter Season Success

In this issue...

--Men’s Basketball Still Building, pg. 3--Newcomers Help Wrestling Team, pg. 4--Athletes in Action, pg. 4--New Homepage Unveiled, pg. 4--Winter Honor Roll, pg. 5--Oneonta Athletes Honored for Academic Success,

pg. 6

Women’s BasketballRagains Winning Formula

As the 1999-2000 women’s basket-ball season opened, there were manyquestions as to whether they couldreturn to their winning form that gotthem to the NCAA’s two years ago.Oneonta had a new coach and no

returning se-niors, but didhave a nucleus oftalented,hardworkingjuniors to helplead the way.

The seasonopened at theVassar Invita-tional where theRed Dragonswould lose their

opener to the hosts, but bounce backin the consolation game to defeatBridgewater State College 77-72.

Women’s Swimming &Diving Moves Forward

While Men’s TeamContinues Its Road Back

As coach Chris Schuler-Ghiorse was looking ahead to her1999-2000season there wasmuch optimism,especially on thewomen’s side.She knew shehad an extremelytalented group ofincoming fresh-men and thoughtthat these rookieswould make animpact right away. As the seasonunfolded her optimism was wellfounded as the women broke schoolrecord after school record and hadtheir best showing ever at theSUNYAC Championship meet.

On the men’s side, the teamcontinues to build with the younger

swimmers and battled a numberssituation all year. The teamfinished with an 0-10 dual seasonrecord while losing two swim-mers from the original preseasonroster. The seven men whofinished the season includedsenior Captain Kevin Timony(Belle Harbor, N.Y.), and sopho-

(continued pg. 3, col. 1)

Samantha Cronk

Dan McGrawSUNYAC Co-Coach

of the Year

The existing field hockey and lacrosse field with trackthat will be replaced with a brand new turf field and anall-weather, eight lane track with lights.

The Oneonta State AthleticDepartment got an early Christmaspresent on Dec. 22 with the an-nouncement that the College willreceive a grant to upgrade and buildnew athletic fields on campus. Theannouncement was made by SenatorJames L. Seward that the State ofNew York is granting 3.5 milliondollars for this project. The grantmoney will be used to upgrade theexisting soccer facility as well asconstruct a new turf field and aneight-lane all-weather track and fieldwith lights.

Athletic Director SteveGarner said he hopes the newfacilities will complement theever improving sports and recre-ation programs at the college.Over the past two years, SUNYOneonta has sent six differentteams to the NCAA Tournament

(continued pg. 2, col. 1)

(continued pg. 2, col. 2)

Paula Polce

Junior captain Paula Polce(Trumansburg, N.Y.) was selected tothe All-Tournament Team afterscoring 38 points for the weekend.

The SUNYAC schedule wasthe next challenge for Oneonta asthey entered the break with a recordof 3-5 after wins over Geneseo andNew Paltz and losses to Cortland,Brockport, Buffalo State andFredonia.

The last two losses seemedto wake up the Red Dragons, be-cause when they returned in Januarythe began to climb up the standingsby winning their first six conferencegames and 9 of 11 overall. Theirtwo losses during the stretch were toHartwick and Cortland. The loss toHartwick was a four overtimethriller that will be remembered forsome time. Both teams battled untilthere was nothing left to give.Oneonta came back twice in the firstand second overtimes to force acontinuation of the game.

The Red Dragons wouldfinish the regular season with a 15-9record, 13-7 in the SUNYAC, andwould get the fourth seed in theconference tournament. In thequarterfinals Oneonta playedGeneseo and won 73-55 behind 20points and eight boards by Polce.This win set up a semifinal gamewith the top-seeded Cortland RedDragons.

Early on it looked as thoughCortland would run away with thegame, but a 17-5 run to end the halfby Oneonta closed the gap to 36-35at the break. Oneonta continuedtheir strong play in the second half

and actually tooka 53-51 lead withjust over nineminutes to go.The lead would beregained byCortland with fiveminutes remain-ing as they wouldhold on to win 71-

66.Polce would finish the

season as a First Team All-SUNYACpick while leading the team in

scoring, rebounding, field goalpercentage and free throw percent-age. Newcomer Amy Comer(Clifton Park, N.Y.) was second onthe team in scoring and was first inthree point baskets made with 24.

Statistical Leaders:

Scoring: Polce, 17.4 ppg.Rebounding: Polce, 8.5 rpg.Assists: Kristin Lemon, 95Steals: Robyn Watson, 69Blocks: Kristen Hall, 34FG%: Polce, 51.1% (186-364)3-pt. FG%: Comer, 25.8 (24-93)3-pt. FG made: Comer, 24FT%: Polce, 75.2%

while capturing five SUNYACChampionships and two EmpireLacrosse League Championships.Garner indicated that the women’sfield hockey team and the men’s andwomen’s lacrosse teams will prac-tice and play all their games on thelighted artificial turf field.

The upgrading of theexisting soccer facility will giveboth the men’s and women’s pro-grams a state of the art field oncampus. The two teams will leavetheir temporary home of the lastthree years at the National SoccerHall of Fame and return to campusfor all their games. “This soccerfacility will be second to none,” saidGarner. “It will have a top gradenatural grass surface with a highlysophisticated irrigation and drainagesystem.” With the men’s teamjoining the newly formed AtlanticSoccer Conference next fall, and thenational reputation that the women’sprogram now enjoys, the newfacility will be a welcome additionfor players and fans.”

The final piece to thecomplex is an eight lane track andfield complex that will encircle theturf field. It will provide Oneontaathletes and students with the bestpossible surface on which to run andtrain. With the addition of a newtrack venue, a men’s and women’strack and field program will bedeveloped in the near future. “Weare hopeful that by developing atrack and field program at Oneontawe can provide more athleticopportunities for all students at thecollege,” Garner said.

The building project comeson the heels of several new additionsto the SUNY Oneonta athletic andrecreation programs. The collegededicated the new 13.5 milliondollar field house last October,including two new fitness centers,tennis facility, and three new prac-tice fields. Project bids are expectedto go out in April, and a completiondate has been targeted for Septem-ber.

AlenaSeabrook

AdamCash

MikeLombardo

AllisonWatts

Brendan Twomey

mores EricBuscemi(Bellerose, N.Y.),Greg Giovinazzo(Staten Island,N.Y.), KevinLarke (WillistonPark, N.Y.),Justin Martin(Rome, N.Y.),Rudy Mercado

(Carmel, N.Y.) and Michael Ryan(Port Washington, N.Y.).

The women’s team camethrough their dual season with arecord of 8-3 with two of their threelosses by a total of five points. Thesquad was well represented by nineswimmers and one diver at theSUNYAC championships wherethey finished seventh overall with257.5 points. The qualifiers in-cluded: senior Renee Colombo(Auburn, N.Y.); junior tri-CaptainVeronica Hawley (Binghamton,N.Y.) and classmate Allison Watts(Grand Island, N.Y.) along withfreshmen Tristen Weaver (Ithaca,N.Y.), Jennifer Tucker (Millwood,N.Y.), Samantha Cronk(Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), KathleenHorrace (New Windsor, N.Y.),Meghan Savage (Woodside, N.Y.),Alissa Moskowitz (Plainview, N.Y.)and Megan Halling (Geneva, N.Y.).

Men’s Basketball has Upand Down Season

The men’s basketball teamplayed through the highs and lowsthat any year can bring in 1999-

2000. They came out of the gatequickly with a pair of upsets in theearly season, but then struggled withinjuries and numbers when thesquad returned inJanuary.

Theseason began athome as the RedDragons hostedthe Holiday InnClassic whichincluded SUNY-Purchase,Thomas Collegeof Maine and Mount St. Mary.Oneonta won their opening game94-60 over SUNY-Purchase toadvance to the championship versusMount St. Mary who defeatedThomas in their opener. The RedDragons would hold off a late surgeby the visitors to win the tournamentfinal 62-60 to start the season 2-0.Junior co-captain Moe Ricks (StatenIsland, N.Y.) was selected as theMVP of the tournament whilefreshman Brendan Twomey (NewWindsor, N.Y.) was named to theAll-Tournament Team.

The winning would continueas Oneonta opened their SUNYACschedule with a come-from-behind60-59 over conference preseasonNo. 1 Cortland. Twomey’s basketwith 26 seconds remaining ended up

Winter Athletes of the WeekNovember 15Mike Lombardo, WrestlingMike Longobardi, Wrestling

November 22/29Moe Ricks, BasketballPaula Polce, Basketball

December 6Mike Lombardo, WrestlingKathleen Horrace, Swimming &

Diving

December 13Jennifer Tucker, Swimming & DivingTristen Weaver, Swimming & Diving

January 10Mike Lombardo, WrestlingPaula Polce, Basketball

January 17Mike Longobardi, WrestlingSamantha Cronk, Swimming & Diving

January 24Ricky Castriota, WrestlingMike Coppinger, WrestlingTom Baker, WrestlingMike Lombardo, Wrestling

January 31Mike Lombardo, WrestlingSamantha Cronk, Swimming & Diving

February 7Paula Polce, BasketballPatti Schroh, Basketball

February 14Samantha Cronk, Swimming &

DivingKathleen Horrace, Swimming &

Diving

February 21Mike Longobardi, WrestlingBrendan Twomey, Basketball

February 28Paula Polce, BasketballPatti Schroh, Basketball

School Records Set:

200-yard medley relay (Savage,Cronk, Horrace, Tucker)-1:59.86400-yard medley relay (Savage,Cronk, Horrace, Tucker)-4:22.92200-yard free relay (Tucker, Weaver,Cronk, Horrace)-1:47.55400-yard free relay (Tucker, Weaver,Cronk, Horrace)-3:57.64100-yard free (Tucker)-57.111,000-yard free (Weaver)-12:02.8200-yard breast (Cronk)-2:36.64100-yard breast (Cronk)-1:12.341,650-yard free (Weaver)-20:14.23*100-yard fly (Horrace)-1:03.19*200-yard IM (Cronk)-2:23.32200-yard free (Tucker)-2:05.59400-yard IM (Weaver)-5:15.09800-yard free relay (Colombo,Hawley, Moskowitz, Weaver)-

9:01.471-meter diving (Watts)-272.35 (11

dives)*Oneonta State pool record holders

Chris Schuler-Ghiorse

SUNYAC Coach ofthe Year

Ricky Castriota

Mike Longobardi

Mix of Newcomers andVeterans Works Well for

Wrestling Team

The Oneonta State wrestlingteam saw much success during thepast season, due in part to a meshingof rookies and veterans who workedhard at achieving success. Coach AlSosa was pleased with the perfor-mance he got from his startinglineup and looks forward to return-ing many of them next year. Therewere many wrestlers who stood outindividually in 1999-2000, four in

Oneonta State UnveilsNewly Designed

Homepage

The new year broughtmany things to Oneonta Stateathletics and one of them was anew, and improved, homepage onthe World Wide Web. The site isstill getting its share of tweeks, butfor the most part, anyone canfollow all of Oneonta’s varsityteams as well as read about thelatest happenings.

The site was a collabora-tive effort between Sports Informa-tion Director Geoff Hassard andAssistant Field Hockey andLacrosse Coach Heather Mackay.Mackay volunteered for thehazardous duty of creating the sitefrom scratch after sitting withHassard to get some ideas on whatthe site should include and looklike. She worked hard to create asite that was easy to navigate, shortin time of downloading and a sitethat was pleasing to look at.Mackay did an outstanding jobwith the basic concepts and hasmade it work.

The site for the most partwill be maintained by Hassard,with half of the team pagesmaintained by the teams them-selves for a personal touch. As thesite continues to develop withadditions for facilities, the RedDragon Club and the Hall of Fame,we hope that you will check us outat www.oneonta.edu/~sports.

as the game winner as Oneontaclosed the last three minutes with a12-2 run to capture the win.Oneonta would then suffer a let-down aginst Geneseo 75-40 beforerebounding to defeat Brockport thenext afternoon 74-71. The RedDragons went into the winter break5-3 after another last second winagainst New Paltz before dropping aweekend pair at Buffalo State andFredonia.

Oneonta opened the secondhalf of the season with losses athome to Potsdam and Plattsburgh.They won their next two games, athome versus Oswego and on theroad at Utica-Rome before closingthe month with three losses on theroad to Hartwick, Oswego and NewPaltz.

The month of Februaryproved to be no better for the RedDragons as they won only twogames while dropping six. Theydid, however, enter the final week-end of the regular season with achance to make the SUNYACTournament. To do so they had towin one game, and most likely bothgames, of a weekend pair atPlattsburgh and Potsdam. They wonthe front end of the trip, 84-68 overPlattsburgh, on the strength of aseason high 27 points by Twomeyand 22 points and 10 boards fromclassmate Shaun Bauer (Wallkill,N.Y.). Unfortunately the RedDragons’ season would end whenthey lost to Potsdam the next dayand Utica-Rome beat Buffalo Stateto sneak into the last playoff spot.

Statistical Leaders:

Scoring: Twomey, 12.8 ppg.Rebounding: Ricks, 6.2 rpg.Assists: Marcus Stapleton, 83Steals: Stapleton, 55Blocks: Ricks, 13FG%: Craig Dawson, 46.3% (56-

121)3-pt. FG%: Twomey, 40.2 (53-132)3-pt. Made: Twomey, 53FT%: Twomey, 69.5% (41-59)

particular were senior RickyCastriota (Cedarhurst, N.Y.), juniorMike Longobardi (Bayshore, N.Y.),and freshmen Mike Lombardo(Massapequa, N.Y.) and Tom Baker(Owego, N.Y.).

Castriota was co-Captainand was first on the team with 31wins and second with eight pinswhile earning All-New York Statehonors at 165 lbs. Longobardi, who

qualified asecond straightyear for theNCAA Champi-onships, was 29-6 with a teamhigh 12 pins. Healso won indi-vidual titles atthe MonarchInvitational andOneonta Red

Dragon Invitational while beingranked as high as ninth nationally inDiv. III. Lombardo had an instantimpact on the lineup winning titlesin the opening three Invitationaltournaments including the MostOutstanding Wrestler award at theRed Dragon Invitational. He wasranked nationally at 133 lbs. as highas seventh and also earned All-NewYork State honors. Baker wasanother rookie who showed potentialfor the future in 1999-2000. Hecompiled a 24-13 record and earnedAll-New York State honors in hisfirst season.

As forthe dual meetseason, Oneontafinished 7-9-1overall and hadtheir best show-ing in some yearsat both the NewYork StateChampionshipsand EmpireWrestling LeagueChampionships.At the NYS Championships the RedDragons were fourth among Div. IIIschools and, at the Empire Champi-onships, they placed third. Thesquad also finished in the top five atthe Monarch and Lebanon ValleyInvitationals to start the year.

Winter Honor RollWomen’s Swimming & DivingSUNYAC Medalists:Samantha Cronk ’03 - 200 free relay; 200

medley relay; 400 medley relay; 100breaststroke; 200 breaststroke; 400 freerelay;

Jennifer Tucker ’03 - 200 free relay; 400medley relay; 400 free relay;

Tristen Weaver ’03 - 200 free relay; 800 freerelay; 400 free relay;

Kathleen Horrace ’03 - 200 free relay; 400medley relay; 200 medlay relay; 100 fly;400 free relay;

Meghan Savage ’03 - 400 medley relay; 200medley relay;

Veronica Hawley ’01 - 200 medley relay; 100fly;

Alissa Moskowitz ’03 - 800 free relay;Renee Colombo ’00 - 800 free relay;Chris Schuler-Ghiorse - SUNYAC Women’s

Coach of the Year

WrestlingMike Lombardo ’03 - Monarch Invit Champ;

Red Dragon Invit Champ (Most Outstand-ing Wrestler); Lebanon Valley InvitChamp; All-New York State;

Mike Longobardi ’01 - Monarch Invit Champ;Red Dragon Invit Champ; NCAA Qualifier,157 lbs.

Ricky Castriota ’00 - All-New York State;Mike Coppinger ’00 - All-New York State;Tom Baker ’03 - All-New York State;

Men’s BasketballMoe Ricks ’01 - Holiday Inn Classic MVP;

ECAC Upstate New York Weekly HonorRoll, 12/7; SUNYAC Co-POW, 12/7;

Brendan Twomey ’03 - Holiday Inn Classic All-Tournament Team; ECAC Upstate NewYork Weekly Honor Roll, 2/21;

Women’s BasketballPaula Polce ’01 - Vassar All-Tournament Team;

SUNYAC POW, 1/10; ECAC Upstate NewYork POW, 1/10; ECAC Upstate New YorkWeekly Honor Roll, 1/24, 2/8, 2/21;SUNYAC Co-POW, 2/8; All-SUNYAC 1stTeam;

Patti Schroh ’01 - SUNYAC All-TournamentTeam;

Dan McGraw - SUNYAC Co-Coach of theYear;

SUNYAC RELEASES FALL COMMISIONER’S LISTAND ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM

39 Student-Athletes Make The Grade

ONEONTA, N.Y.—State University of New York Athletic Conference Commissioner (SUNYAC), Patrick R.Damore, announced the Commissioner’s List and All-Academic Team for the fall season. To qualify for the honor, astudent-athlete must be a varsity athlete, have competed for the entire fall season and have maintained a 3.3 grade pointaverage for three semesters to be selected to the Commissioner’s List or have a 3.3 grade point average for the fall semes-ter to be selected to the All-Academic Team.

CL AA Name Yr Sport Major Hometown

X X Amy Alder SR Cross Country Dietetics Cheektowaga, NYX X Robin Armstrong JR Cross Country English Plattsburgh, NY

X Carrie Atwell SR Field Hockey Adult/Aging Latham, NYX X Lisa Carey SR Soccer Elementary Education Port Jervis, NY

X Ann Cheney FR Soccer Biology Potsdam, NYX Rachel Cohen SO Soccer Secondary Educ/Math Malta, NY

X X Katherine English JR Soccer Human Ecology Piffard, NYX Olga Grechka SR Soccer Elementary Education Owego, NY

X Natalie Griffin JR Volleyball Secondary Educ/Math New Hampton, NYX Meghan Harding SR Soccer Elementary Education Merrick, NY

X X Jason Hime JR Cross Country Physics S. Glens Falls, NYX X Ross Hollingworth SR Soccer Business Economics Johannesburg, South Africa

X Lucille Johnson JR Tennis Environmental Biology Sidney, NYX Daniel Keough SR Cross Country Dietetics Eimira, NYX X Kelly Keyes SO Field Hockey Elementary Education Salem, NYX X Melinda Kilmer SO Volleyball Dietetics Binghamton, NY

X Ephrat Kodsi SR Volleyball Biology W. Nyack, NYX Kurt Lare SR Cross Country Business Economics Montgomery, NY

X X Arian Mahrer SR Cross Country Spanish Potsdam, NYX Karen Marzuk SO Cross Country EIementary Education Greenlawn, NY

X X Danee Mauche SO Cross Country Psychology Cobleskill, NYX X Nicole McCullagh SO Field Hockey Elementary Education Camden, NYX X Jennifer Mollen JR Field Hockey Elementary Education Vestal, NYX Elizabeth Muller SO Tennis Human Ecology Fredonia, NYX X Jonathan Neil SR Soccer Secondary Educ/Biology Castle Creek, NY

X Renee Powers FR Tennis Secondary Educ/Soc. St. Hudson Falls, NYX Mary Rickard SR Volleyball Secondary Educ/Math Otisville, NYX James Riley SR Soccer Business Economics Pt. Jefferson, NYX Ryan Rummery FR Soccer Undecided Biggin Hill, England

X X Sara Snyder SO Cross Country Music Schenectady, NYX Jayme Stewart SO Volleyball Elementary Education Ballston Spa, NY

X X Erika Szelkowski JR Field Hockey Elementary Education Nichols, NYX Michael Test JR Soccer Secondary Education/English Oneonta, NY

X Ellen Tilden JR Tennis English Bayport, NYX X Melissa Vandermark SO Cross Country Computer Art Deposit, NY

X Joshua Virgadamo SO Cross Country Biology Freeville, NYX X Mitchell Waters JR Soccer Economics Johannesburg, South Africa

X Raena Weimer JR Cross Country Sec Educ/Human Ecology Orchard Park, NYX Melanie Wishy SR Tennis Elementary Education Brooklyn, NY

CL = Commissioner’s List; AA = All-Academic Team