UMBC

Rasmus Kutt broke the America East Championships record in the 100-back.

Tina Cantwell swam an NCAA consideration time in the 100-breast.

Boston-Freshman Rasmus Kutt set a meet and pool record and sophomore Tina Cantwell achieved an NCAA consideration time to lead the Retrievers in the morning preliminaries on day three of the 2007 America East Swimming and Diving Championships at Boston University’s Aquatic Center. In all, 18 UMBC men and 11 women will swim tonight in five individual events.

Kutt took the top seed in the 100-back in 49.74, breaking both the meet and pool record set last season by Stony Brook’s Rafael Labour (50.73) by nearly a full second. Kutt’s time is the second-fastest ever by a Retriever. Sophomore Milos Djukic (51.74) and senior Tim Conway (52.39) took the fourth and fifth seeds and will join Kutt in the evening’s finals, while senior Brian Jaeggi (53.98) placed ninth and will compete in the consolation heat.

Cantwell swam a career-best 1:03.86 to take the top seed in the 100-breast. Her time is an NCAA ‘B’ cut and is less than two-tenths of a second off the school record of 1:03.69. Sophomore Joy Wilde will join Cantwell in the finals, as she placed sixth in 1:08.44.

Sophomore Justin Bronson swam a career-best 49.51 to take the top seed in the 100-fly. His time is the third-fastest ever by a Retriever. Bronson will be joined in the finals by freshmen Matt Mattingly (50.61) and Zach Vonder Haar (51.95), who placed third and seventh, respectively. Junior Eric Skrabacz (52.72) placed 10th and will compete in the consolation heat.

Sophomore Evan Roseberry leads four Retrievers in the 400-IM finals, as he took the second seed (4:08.98), followed by junior Adam Eiben (4:10.11) in third, Jaeggi (4:13.47) in sixth and junior Joey Sementelli (4:15.48) in seventh.

Similarly, senior Juan Ortiz leads a black-and-gold dominated 200-free finals, as he finished third in the prelims (1:42.97), followed by sophomore Freddie Reitz (1:43.17) in fourth, senior Ryan Karrer (1:54.45) in fifth and senior Cliff Schmardel (1:44.10) in seventh.

Finally, junior Scott Auchter took the third seed in the 100-breast (57.17), while senior Pat Woodward will swim in the consolations as he placed ninth (1:00.99).

Sophomore Daniele Surkovich leads the way for the Retriever women in the 100-fly, as she finished fourth in 58.02. Freshman Lindsay Sherman will join her in the finals as the sixth seed (58.41), while freshman Kate Chialastri tied for 10th (59.49) and junior Lindsey Engler came in 12th (59.81) and will swim in the consolation heat.

Junior Meghan Sackett (1:54.36) and Sherman (1:56.02) placed fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 200-free prelims, while senior Agnes Stanislawska took second (57.87) in the 100-back and junior Carly Fitzpatrick came in 15th (1:03.17). Finally, freshman Tereza Kaplanova will be the Retrievers’ lone representative in the evening’s 400-IM competition, as she took the third seed (4:34.25).

In addition to the finals of the men’s and women’s 400-IM, 100-fly, 200-free, 100-breast and 100-back, Saturday evening’s session will also include the men’s 3-meter diving competition, as well as the 400-medley relay. The session begins at 6 p.m.

Both the Retriever men and women are in first place after two days of action. The men, who are the three-time defending America East champions, lead Binghamton by 61.5 points, 313.5-252, while the UMBC women hold a 37-point advantage over second-place Boston University, 269-232. Two-time defending America East champion New Hampshire is third with 218 points.