Kyle Copper (photo by Jim Fitzgerald)
Fredonia State freshman Kyle Copper finished second in the men's 200-yard butterfly during finals of the 2020 SUNYAC Swimming and Diving championship meet Saturday.
Copper was closed in 1:54.50 Saturday night after turning in the fastest time during preliminaries earlier Saturday (1:54.39). He finished 1.63 seconds behind Geneseo freshman Sam Matthews, who shaved just over two seconds off his preliminary time.
In addition to gaining Second Team All-SUNYAC recognition, Copper earned 17 points for his team. The Blue Devils finished in seventh place in the team standings and edged Buffalo State, which finished ninth, to earn two Battle By The Lake points in the season-long series with the Bengals.
The Blue Devils earned 15 points in the 1,650-yard freestyle: 11 by Zach Dean for his eighth-place finish in 17:16.61. Kaden Cole finished 13th and earned four points. He swam 17:47.47 during a morning flight.
Charlie May fell fractions of a second short of breaking the school record in the 200-yard backstroke when he turned in a fifth-place time of 1:56.99 on Saturday. The school record remains Eric Jordan's 1:56.22 set in 2013.
Cameron Criss tied for 11th in the 100-yard freestyle with a finals time of 48.38 seconds.
The meet ended with a fourth-place finish by the 400-yard freestyle quartet of Criss, Drew Page, Copper, and Bradley Zifra in a time of 3:10.93.
Four Fredonia State seniors were competing in their final collegiate meet: Criss, May, Pranav Marala, and Bradley Zifra.
