Bimmler, Conard, Bolstad, and Burke Earn Swimming Awards
MAAC Sports
Edison, NJ – Paul Bimmler of Fairfield University was selected as the MAAC Men’s Swimmer of the Week, while Marist College’s Kate Conard earned the women’s award. Marist’s Brian Bolstad was named the Men’s Diver of the Week, while Rider University’s Amanda Burke earned the women’s honor.
Bimmler had an impressive debut for the Stags, winning three individual events, setting program records in two of them, and anchoring the winning 400m medley relay that shattered a program record to help Fairfield to a 166-120 win over Holy Cross. Individually, Bimmler captured the 200m free in a time of 2:01.83. In the 50m free, Bimmler posted a winning time of 24.69 seconds to break the record of 24.70 seconds set by two Stags last season. In the 100m free, Bimmler notched a time of 55.06 seconds to break the record of 55.33 seconds set in 2004. Bimmler had a split of 54.23 seconds as the anchor leg of the record-setting 400m medley relay that posted a time of 4:08.57, shattering the previous standard of 4:15.00 set in 2005.
In her first collegiate meet, Conard took first place in six events at the Syracuse Invitational, a tri-meet with Army and Syracuse: the 1,000-yd. freestyle with a time of 10:23.47, the 200-yd. freestyle with a time of 1:54.47, the 500-yd. freestyle with a time of 5:00.97, the 200-yd. backstroke with a time of 2:08.49, the 400-yd. freestyle relay, and the 400-yd. medley relay. Her time in the 500-yd. freestyle would have placed her second at the 2009 MAAC Championships. As a team, Marist claimed 12 first place finishes over the weekend.
Bolstad won both the 3-meter and 1-meter boards at the Syracuse Invitational, a tri-meet with Army and Syracuse. The Marist record holder in 3-meter diving, he won the board at Syracuse on Friday night with a score of 306.7. He followed it up on Saturday with his second first place finish of the meet off the 1-meter board with a score of 276.3.
Burke, a senior from Churchville, Pennsylvania, won the 3-meter dive (336.38) and the 1-meter dive (297.00). It was her second highest score ever in the 3-meter.
The 2010 MAAC Swimming and Diving Championships will be held February 11-13 at Loyola College in Baltimore, Md.