Brockport, NY – The SUNY Brockport men's and women's swimming and diving program will return to the pool on Saturday, October 22^nd at 1pm in Cortland, NY for the Pumpkin Relays, marking the start of their 2022-2023 season.
 
The Wahl Era Continues: SUNY Brockport announced the hiring of Zack Wahl as the new aquatic's director and head coach of the swimming and diving program in August of 2021. Prior to his start at Brockport Wahl spent three seasons as head coach at Clarkson University. During his first season as head coach there he helped his athletes set eight new Clarkson school records and had an individual title at the Liberty League Championships in 2019-20, a first for the program since 2013-14. 
 
In just one season Wahl coached the women's team to a third-place finish at the SUNYAC Championships, the highest the team has finished in over thirty years. Wahl, a three-time All-American during his collegiate career, gave his thoughts when asked about his second season as a Golden Eagle. "I am really excited for my second season with the program. The combination of returning upper classmen and our strong freshman class will result in another strong showing this year form the program and hopefully help us continue to build the team into perennial contender in the SUNYAC Conference."
 
Horsington Makes a Splash: Scott Horsington joined the SUNY Brockport Swimming & Diving coaching staff in 2011. A graduate of Fredonia, he was a three-time NCAA All-American, three-time SUNYAC Conference champion, two-time Chancellor's award winner, an Academic All-American, and the 2007 recipient of the Dr. Sam Molnar award. In 2016, he was inducted into Fredonia's Athletics Hall of Fame.  
 
Under Horsington's guidance Brockport divers have rewritten the record board, producing three NCAA All-Americans, three NCAA Championship alternates, 11 National qualifiers, and eight SUNYAC Top-3 finishers. At the 2018 SUNYAC Championships, senior Meghann Kilgallon captured the first Conference title of Horsington's tenure. That same year, Kilgallon won Brockport's first-ever SUNYAC Diver of the Year award and Horsington was named SUNYAC Women's Diving Coach of the Year.
 
Schedule Summary: After opening the season this weekend in Cortland for a Relay Invite, the Golden Eagles will stay local the following weekend when they travel to Nazareth College on October 29^th.  The following weekend the Green and Gold are on the road for the first SUNYAC match up against SUNY Oneonta. Then the squad will stay in conference for the first home meet against SUNY Potsdam on Saturday, November 12^th. The programs will then take a western road trip when they travel to Oberlin, OH for the Midseason Oberlin Invite. This is a three-day championship format meet with prelims in the morning session and finals at night. After Oberlin, the Golden Eagles have one more conference matchup of the semester, away at SUNY Oswego before finals and winter break.
 
Following winter break and a training trip in Florida, the Green and Gold will host Buffalo State on Friday, January 13^th. The following day the team travels to a tri-meet with Hobart & William Smith and SUNY Cobleskill in Geneva, NY. The teams will travel again to face SUNY Geneseo at 5pm on Friday, January 20^th. The Golden Eagles then return home for two days in a row. Friday, January 27^th the team will host Monroe Community College at 6pm and on the 28^th the team will celebrate Senior Day with a tri-meet at home against Alfred State College and SUNY Fredonia. This is the final meet before they travel to Erie Community College for the SUNYAC Championships from February 15^th-18^th in Buffalo, NY.
 
2021-2022 Recap: The Golden Eagles finished last season on a high note when the men finished in seventh place and the women finished third in the conference at the SUNYAC Championship meet. Last year the team broke three records. Oliver Dragojevic broke his own record in the 100-Breastroke with a time of 57.87 and in the 200-Breastroke with a time of 2:05.32. Nicole Orcutt, Sawyer Parker, Allison Morrow and Elizabeth Sagan broke the record in the 800- Freestyle relay with a time of 7:56.23. Sagan was named SUNYAC Rookie of the Year after an amazing collegiate debut. Kyra Russ, Mark Eaton and Kurt Mueller all qualified for the Regional NCAA Diving Championships after finishing in the top ten at the conference meet.
 
Key Returners: Returning to the pool this season are multiple record holders and a SUNYAC Champion. For the women's team two-time SUNYAC Champion in the 50 yard and 100-yard freestyle, Elizabeth Sagan will be back for her sophomore year as a Golden Eagle. Sagan is a part of the 800-relay team that holds the school record with a time of 7:56.23. Sawyer Parker and Nicole Orcutt were also a part of the 800-relay record team. Nicole Orcutt is returning for her senior season as a Golden Eagle. Orcutt currently holds the team records in the 200-freestyle, 500-freestyle, and the 200-butterfly. Sawyer Parker is also returning for her senior season and will be focusing on sprint freestyle and backstroke. Kyra Russ is back after a huge first season where she competed in the NCAA tournament as well as earning the CSCAA Scholar All America Award as a freshman. Russ finished third in the 1-meter at SUNYAC's and earned a top ten finish on the 3-meter at NCAA Regionals. 
 
Emma Butler, Alexa Callaghan, Caroline Rossi, Ren Watson, Maya Upcraft, and Corinne Wilson will all be returning to the pool for the Green and Gold this fall. 
 
The Men also have some established swimmers back for another go around this year. Senior record holder in the 100-Breastroke and 200-Breastroke, Oliver Dragojevic is back this fall. Dragojevic was also on both the 200 and 400 medley relay teams to hold the school record since 2020. Senior Matt Chan will return to the pool after a competing in finals in the 100 butterfly and the 200-backstorke at the conference meet last winter. 
 
Taylan Getiren, Logan Kime, Kurt Mueller, Ryan Sampson, and Gavin Stone will also be returning for Brockport.

New Additions: Wahl brought in a strong freshman class of twelve women and eight men. The women will be welcoming Emily Lefrois-Heath, Teagan Makuch, Addy Martino, Rachel Meleady-Breslin, Hannah Pauly, Emma Purvis, Qian Rappazzo, Nikki Talledo, Miya Vitale, Sam Whitman, Emi Wilck, and Esther Zadov. On the men's side Jace Frederickson, Johannes Grinder, Jacob Hagen, Joe Keeney, Thomas King, Garrett Nanna, Ethan Niver and Luca Olivieri will be joining the team.
 
Up Next: The Golden Eagles will travel to Pittsford to compete against Nazareth College on Saturday, October 29^th.