UMBC

Senior Lindsey Engler is the top seed tonight's 50 freestyle.

ORONO, Maine—The UMBC men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have completed the preliminary heats of the second day of competition at the 2008 America East Championships in Orono, Maine and will see 28 individual swims at tonight’s finals session.  Fifteen of those swims will be in the finals heat and 13 will be in the consolation finals heat.

Four Retrievers will enter this evening’s competition as the top seeds in their events, as juniors Justin Bronson (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada/Msgr. Paul Dwyer) and Daniele Surkovich (Ellicott City, Md./Wilde Lake) have earned the top spots in the men’s and women’s 500 freestyles, respectively, freshman Brad Reitz (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) posted the fastest time of the morning in the 200 individual medley, and senior Lindsey Engler (Salisbury, Md./James M. Bennett) was tops in the 50 freestyle.

Surkovich started the morning off by swimming a time of 4:57.96 in the 500, just two seconds shy of her career-best, and freshman Rebecca Godwin (Catonsville, Md./Notre Dame Prep) will join her in the final as the sixth seed.

Sophomore Tereza Kaplanova (Prague, Czech Republic/J.G. Jarkovskeho) led the Retrievers in the 200 IM with a time of 2:07.61, good for a fourth seed, while freshman Julie Cantwell (Sinking Spring, Pa./Wilson) will join her in the final after finishing eighth.

Engler leads the field in the final individual event of the day, the 50 freestyle, as she posted a career-best time of 23.78, just short of Surkovich’s school record of 23.67 set at last year’s conference championship meet.

On the men’s side, Bronson leads a trio of Retrievers with a meet-leading time of 4:33.89 in the 500, while junior Freddie Reitz (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) and senior Joey Sementelli (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) are currently ranked fourth and sixth for tonight’s finals.

Freddie Reitz’s younger brother, Brad is at the head of a pack of Retrievers in the 200 IM after he turned in a time of 1:52.21 in the morning prelims and will have fellow Retrievers sophomore Matt Mattingly (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West), senior Adam Eiben (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin), and freshman Mat Carson (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Silverthorn Collegiate Institute) join him as the second, fourth, and seventh seeds respectively.

Sophomore Zach Vonder Haar leads the men in the individual event as he turned in a time of 21.44 in the 50 free for a fifth seed, while sophomore Fred Deal (Richboro, Pa./Father Judge/Council Rock South) and junior Milos Djukic (Novi Sad, Serbia/Svetozar Markovic) are the sixth and eighth seeds for tonight.

The Retrievers will also compete in the 200 freestyle relay and the women’s 1-meter diving finals this evening with competition slated to begin at 6:00 p.m.