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ALFRED, NY  -- The Alfred University men's swimming & diving team fell to Division II Le Moyne College on Tuesday afternoon, 124-119 in Lebohner Pool.
 
"The men's meet is an example of why I'm coaching and still involved with the sport of swimming and that's what it is all about," Graduate Assistant Coach Ray Snyder IV said. "Sometimes you end up on the losing end like we did today, but you learn from stuff like this. Now, at the end of the year, when we do have those close races, they can go our way more often. It was a fun meet and our guys handled the pressure really well and it was great all across the board."
 
The meet all came down to the final event of the day in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The Alfred team of Yunneng Du (Yorktown, VA/Tabb), Zach Goodwin (Holden, MA/Wachusett), Bryan Rafoth (Rochester, NY/Eastridge) and Justin Jarmer (Flagstaff, AZ/Northland Preparatory Academy) were neck-and-neck with the A-Team from Le Moyne but in the final stretch, the Dolphins earned the win and sealed the meet as they swam a 1:30.39, out-reaching the Saxons' 1:31.17. Had the two teams switched finishes, the Saxons would have claimed the dual meet win, 126-117.
 
The Saxons' 200-yard medley relay team of Andy Edmister (Belmont, NY/Genesee Valley Central), Richard Berger (New Paltz, NY/New Paltz), Vincent Tamplain (Luling, LA/Hahnville) and Ryan Brown (Olean, NY/Olean) got the Saxons off to a great start as they edged the A-Team of Le Moyne by 0.07 seconds for the win. The Saxon B-Team of Ethan Zyglocke (Livonia, NY/Livonia), Fynn Vossler (Livonia, NY/Livonia), Jarmer and Rafoth also edged out a Le Moyne team by less than a second to take third place and two points for the team. The squad swam a 1:46.70 to take bronze by 0.24 seconds and give Alfred the early, 13-4 lead.
 
Edmister became the first individual Saxon to pick up a win as he swam a 22.62 in the 50-yard freestyle and was immediately followed by Brown who took second with a 22.69. Noah Koltenuk (Danville, PA/Danville Area) jumped into the pool in the very next men's race to win the 400-yard individual medley in exciting fashion. The sophomore was behind the lead Le Moyne swimmer for almost an entire 350 yards before, in the final length of freestyle, Koltenuk propelled himself ahead and picked up a near, two second win in the event with a final time of 4:29.50.
 
After a series of Le Moyne top finishes in the 100 free and 100 butterfly, Edmister got back into the lanes to compete in the 100-yard backstroke along with Goodwin. The duo finished one-two as Edmister posted a 53.72 while Goodwin edged out the Le Moyne third place finisher with his 57.43, making it a 0.49 deficit.
 
Edmister wasn't the only Saxon to pick up two individual wins on the day as Chris Deaver (Warwick, NY/Warwick Valley) won both diving events. He first won the 3-meter board with a score of 250.43. Later on, he won the 1-meter with a 259.70 to sweep the events in the diving well.
 
In terms of second place finishes, Koltenuk swam a 10:19.42 in the 1,000-yard freestyle as he was out-touched by almost four seconds. He then took second in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:58.23, falling by 0.12 seconds. The final second place finish in individual events of the evening was a two-three finish by Berger and Zyglocke in the 100-yard breaststroke. Berger took second with a 1:00.95 as the Le Moyne swimmer topped him by less than a second. Zyglocke touched the wall in 1:04.40.
 
The Saxons will next host Hartwick College on Saturday, January 19 at 1PM. Saturday's meet is also Senior Day where Berger, Justin Cerrato (Beekman, NY/Arlington), Deaver, Goodwin, Gabriel Smith (Campbell, NY/Campbell-Savona), Zyglocke and Seth Steele (Crossville, TN/Cicero-North Syracuse) and their careers will be recognized and celebrated.