St. John's University Athletics
2003-04 Swimming Recap
5/10/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming
May 10, 2004
Jamaica, N.Y - The 2003-04 St. John's men's swim team finished the regular season with a 5-3 dual meet record, while the women's swim team posted a solid 5-4 record. The season's ended with our men finishing sixth and our women placing tenth at the 2004 BIG EAST Championship.
The Red Storm closed out the 2004 Big East Swimming Championships having set six St. John's University school records in the men's 50 yard freestyle, women's 400 yard medley relay, men's 200 yard freestyle, women's 400 yard IM, men's 200 yard breaststroke and women's 200 yard medley relay.
During the Big East Individual and Team awards presentation former St. John's Head Swim Coach Dick Krempecki (1964-1985), and St. John's administrators Rick Cole, Erin McDonnell and Annemarie Carey presented Red Storm Head Coach John Skudin with a plaque recognizing his impressive accomplishment of winning his 100th career meet on January 30th, 2004 against Villanova. In his 14 years at the helm of the St. John's swimming program, Skudin has helped keep the Red Storm program among the top in the conference. Skudin's student-athletes have continually broken pool, school and conference records each season, along with excelling in the classroom, with both of his teams receiving Academic All-American honors.
On the men's side, despite having only eight swimmers the team was able to hang tough and consistently stayed in the top six in the BIG EAST throughout the season. They had six swimmers finish with NCAA B CUT times, and four athletes received All-BIG EAST honors,Pawel Sokolowski, Wojciech Sikora, Marcin Filipowicz and Michal Szapiel.
Senior Pawel Sokolowski set new records in the 50, 100 and 200 Freestyle and Arakadiusz Znachowski set new records in the 100 and 200 breast. Arkadiusz shattered the St. John's record in the 200 breaststroke by more than two seconds with a time of 2:01.29. Pawel ended his season on a great note winning the 200-yard freestyle at the BIG EAST Championship and the 100-yard freestyle at the ECAC Championship.
The women also had a great season, breaking six school records in the 1000 and 1650 freestyle, 100 fly, 400 IM and the 200 and 400 medley relay.Leading the way for the Red Storm was junior Christine Myers. She posted seven first place finishes throughout the season, and at the 2004 BIG EAST Championship, she broke a thirteen-year-old St. John's record in the 400-yard IM by more than two seconds with a time of 4:32.03. Earlier in the season, senior Elizabeth Malinowski broke the school record in the 1000 Freestyle vs. Iona with a time of 10:23.54, over seven seconds faster than the previous mark she set in 2002 and at the Princeton Invitational she set the school record in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 17:25.66. Sophomore Gosia Rodzik also broke the St. John's record in the 100 Fly against Villanova with a time of 58.30.
At the BIG EAST Championship the women's relay team of sophomore Maya Ziolkowski, freshman Anette Melissa Hoye, sophomore Gosia Rodzik and graduate Laura Nuudi set the school record in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:55.00. With a tremendous team effort in the team's final meet of the year, the women's swim team finished in second place at the ECAC Championship. Along with their great performances in the water, both the men and women's team received Academic All-American honors. For the women it continues a streak of 14 consecutive years, while the men have earned the honors in 13 out of 14 seasons. Laura Nuudi was named the 2003-04 BIG EAST/Aeropostale Female Scholar-Athlete Representative for St. John's University
