2011 Award Winners HAROLD M. GRODEN MD AWARD - Outstanding Performance This award is named after the coach s father. It is given to a swimmer or diver for the outstanding individual performance of the season - in a situation where he or she rose to the occasion for the benefit of the team. Dr. Groden was a Boston College athlete (hockey - class of 35) and recognized the importance of competition and striving for excellence in athletics as well as academics. The HM Groden Award was actually created to as a response to a great swim. Back in 1985 the final meet of the season for the men s team was against the University of Connecticut. It was the first season when the New England s and the Big East were on the same weekend so we would only have one shaved meet to conclude the season. Captain Lonnie Quinn 85 suggested that we shave for U Conn as our second shave. The Huskies were a consistent top five team in the New England s where BC had never been in the top ten. It seemed like a great fit and the team agreed. The meet came down to the last individual event - the 200 breaststroke. CT had two breaststrokers who had both been 2:17 so far that season. BC had Kevin Foley 88 who had already done a personal best of 2:24 that year and Dean Schneble 87. Dean s personal best was 2:18 and seasonal best was a 2:21. Three asides here first - only three places scored at this time with 5 for 1st, 3 for 2 nd and 1 for 3 rd. Second Kevin Foley was swimming his first meet of the semester as he cut the cast off his broken arm to shave for this meet. Third We needed this event as U Conn s 400 free relay had all four swimmers back from the crew that had won last year s New Englands and set a NE record. Kevin Foley got us started. His split for the first 100 was a personal best for his 100. Kevin died badly but he had set the pace. Despite dying badly, Kevin still dropped five full seconds off his time to a 2:19, but it was only good enough for fourth place. The two Huskies went 2:17 and 2:18 for second and third but the Eagle s Dean Schneble had amazingly done a 2:13. He had taken eight seconds off his seasonal best and a full five off his personal best. A swim great enough for a BC win versus U Conn and worthy of creating this award. The Eagles inspired by Dean s effort then went out and closed out the meet by beating CT s free relay to finalize the Boston College victory. 2011 HM Groden Award Winners This has always been one of my favorite awards. To me it is the essence of competition. It is not about times or just winning a race it is about taking yourself to a higher level as a competitor. It is about seeing a need that your team has at that time and fulfilling that need not just with your best effort, but with that combination of effort and result that makes a team succeed due to your success. Lauren Nightingale 12 Allen, Texas Patricia Kautz 12 Bettendorf, Iowa Mackenzie Campbell 11 Foster City, California Lia Breunig 11 Walnut Creek, California 400 Freestyle Relay vs Army October 8, 2010 3:37.34 VS
The trip to West Point during the 2011season turned out excellent. First- this year the weather was excellent so we got to enjoy the ride and we got to walk around the beautiful West Point campus. The next marked improvement was the way the meet was run. The 2010 problems had been solved and a well run meet was conducive to some excellent swims. We stayed comfortably ahead of Stony Brook and the Vermont meet slipped away from us, but the BC-Army meet kept going back and forth. The Eagles were trailing but the diving 1-2 of Erin Rademaker and Ashley Driscoll got us closer. Then when Kathryn Raplee won the 200 individual medley it meant that for the second year in a row the meet had come down to the last relay. Lauren Nightingale led off with a 54.28 followed by Patty Kautz s 54.26. Then the California seniors Mackenzie Campbell and Lia Breunig contributed a 54.05 and a 54.75. All four team s A relays came off the last turn and charged to the wall close together. When the final touches showed up on the scoreboard they all registered 3:37 but the Eagles had the fastest hundredths for the win in both the last event and the win in the meet over Army. The Army pool had once again provided us with another excellent conclusion to a Boston College-Army dual meet.
2011 Award Winners HAROLD M. GRODEN MD AWARD - Outstanding Performance Last year in this same spot I started with this quote of a quote, As I stated above This has always been one of my favorite awards and it is even better when it takes a team. This year in choosing the winner of the Groden Award one of the tougher parts was Which Meet? There were four distinct choices. So I started to look them over and one stood out to me in so many ways. As I started to look through the results, I started to re-live the emotion of that day and there was so much emotion. Part of it was concluding the first semester s competitions, some of it being a chance to possibly beat a school like us only with a funded program, of course the noisy emotion of a few Fordham Prep boys, but mostly it was just Boston College Swimming & Diving at its best. This picture adorned the cover of the program for that meet. It is such a BC picture with so many swimmers working so hard to help an Eagle swimmer or two succeed in a race. This John MacKay photo from the Terrier Invite shows our team at their best and all day long we were at our best against Fordham. No slight at all about Williams but on that day Fordham was the target and the motivation. The meet started with the 200 medley relay and Stickney, Stephens, Thilo and Spaeth started us off with a 1:37.29 to 1:37.57 win. That was as close as Fordham would get all day. Boretti, Panzarino and Carroll swept the 1000 and we were off to the races. A 1-3-4 in the 200 freestyle led by John Maloy came next followed by something that would happen only three times all day a Fordham win in an individual event. And in each of those three events (100 back, 50 free and 100 fly), BC took 2-3-4 so the Rams total gain was three points for their three wins. The Eagles made much better use of their wins as they notched a pair of 1-2 s with the 100 breast and the one meter diving. Four times we took 1-2-3 (1000, 200 breast, 500 free and 200 IM) each of those good for a plus thirteen for BC. Also, amazingly, our 200 flyer s chipped in with a 1-2-3-4-5 finish in the meet. Fordham did take the 400 free relay, but true to form we took 2-3 to minimize another race s damage. The final result was Boston College 203 Fordham University 95 The Outstanding Performer chosen for the win that day was The TEAM and proud to say that is the recipient of the 2011 HM Groden Award for Outstanding Performance The TEAM. Sorry, I don t have the money for fifty trophies so I am giving one each to our three captains Dominick Boccio, Brett Bromann & John Maloy (each who won an event in the meet) and one to Marty Long who was victorious off both boards. My Congratulations and a copy of the Award to the rest of you. Eagles Over Rams
HM Groden MD Outstanding Performance Award Previous Winners 2010 Anna Smith 10 Westport, Connecticut John Maloy 11 Wildwood Crest, New Jersey Brett Bromann 11 Yorktown, Illinois Dominick Boccio 11 North Massapequa, New York Andrew Clancey 12 Dublin, Ohio Timmy Corrigan 12 Lido Beach, New York 2009 John Maloy 11 Wildwood Crest, New Jersey Katherine Fritsch 10 Concord, Massachusetts Andrew Clancey 12 Dublin, Ohio 2008 Dominick Boccio 11 North Massapequa, New York Caryn Switaj,10 Farmington Hills, Michagan 2007 Tom Nececkas 07 Wayne, New Jersey Maeve Brennan 08 Winnetka, Illinois Bradie Dwyer 08 Garden City, New York Ashley Leprine 10 New Fairfield, Connecticut Mari Wunschel 08 Santa Rosa, California Caitlin Doherty 10 Andover, Massachusetts Caroline Byron 09 Dallas, Pennsylvania Kelly Leahey 09 Allentown, Pennsylvania Megan Hurd 07 Centreville, Virginia Libby Snyder 08 Honeoye Falls, New York 2006 Torey Thelin 06 Darien, Connecticut Caroline Byron 09 Dallas, Pennsylvania Tommy Chandler 09 Fairfax Station, Virginia Colin Scott 08 Moraga, California Matt Northrup 07 Fayetteville, New York Andy Faughnan 07 Aberdeen, New Jersey Daniel Kollar 07 Schenectady, New York 2005 Brandon Twichell 05 Fayetteville, New York The Women s ECAC Team 2005 ECAC Champions 2004 Andy Faughnan 07 Aberdeen, New Jersey Andy Naumann 04 Tucson, Arizona David Herman 05 San Anselmo, California Matt Northrup 07 Fayetteville, New York Liz Byron 06 Dallas, Pennsylvania 2003 Torey Thelin '06 Darien, Connectict Lauren Keibler 04 Prospect, Kentucky Liz Byron 06 Dallas, Pennsylvania Tim Tully 05 New Rochelle, New York Andy Naumann 04 Tucson, Arizona Brandon Twichell 05 Fayetteville, New York 2002 Matt Baker 03 Lakewood, Washington Caitlin Healey 04 Needham, Massachusetts 2001 Christopher Murphy '01 Westminister, Colorado Nicole Duffy '03 Fairfax, Virginia Caitlin Healey '04 Needham, Massachusetts Lauren Keibler '04 Prospect, Kentucky Caitlin Klick '03 Chelmsford, Massachusetts Alexis Kostopoulos '02 Marblehead, Massachusetts Michelle Lane '04 Kentwood, Michigan Joanne Paleo '04 Mount Kisco, New York Lauren Schwartz '02 Mount Laurel, New Jersey Brianne Sullivan '02 Staten Island, New York Nina Suryoutomo '03 Fremont, California 2000 Matthias Schildwachter 03 Yorktown Heights, New York Nicole Duffy 03 Chesterfield, Missouri Lauren Schwartz 02 Mount Laurel, New Jersey
1999 Ken Barton 01 Meridan, Connecticut Marc Manganiello 01 Norwich, Vermont Brian O Neill 01 Reno, Nevada Sara Guerena 99 Santa Barbara, California 1998 Sara Guerena 99 Santa Barbara, California Patty Schoenhaus 99 Edison, New Jersey Rachel Enos 99 Ipswich, Massachusetts Greg Dwyer 00 Rochelle Park, New Jersey 1997 Maggie Villamana 98 Tucson, Arizona Shane Foley 99 New Milford, New Jersey Greg Dwyer 00 Rochelle Park, New Jersey 1996 Steve Yap 98 Norwalk, Connecticut Maggie Villamana 98 Tucson, Arizona 1995 Megan Lammon 96 Cumberland, Rhode Island 1994 Holly Bickle 94 St Louis, Missouri 1993 Heather Bickle 94 St Louis, Missouri 1992 Beverly Lazarski 93 West Chester, Pennsylvania Maarten Kraaijvanger 92 Saunderstown, Rhode Island 1991 Heather Bickle 94 St Louis, Missouri Maarten Kraaijvanger 92 Saunderstown, Rhode Island 1990 Cat Lukas 90 Riverside, Connecticut Todd Hewett 90 Bradford, Massachusetts 1989 Gillian Fucigna 89 Douglastown, New York Craig Jones 91 Darien, Connecticut Mike Ryan 92 Hamden, Connecticut Peter Sullivan 91 Chelmsford, Massachusetts 1988 Kristen Murphy 88 Acton, Massachusetts Craig Jones 91 Darien, Connecticut 1987 Tara McKenna 87 Westport, Connecticut Suzy Sullivan 88 Rockville Centre, New York 400 Free Relay - NE s Todd Hewett 90 Bradford, Massachusetts Aaron Thompson 89 Dover, New Hampshire Alan Johnson 90 Emmaus, Pennsylvania Scott Williams 87 Cheshire, Connecticut Roberto Ayala 87 Mexico City, Mexico 1986 Suzy Sullivan 88 Rockville Centre, New York Greg Greene 88 Chatham, Massachusetts 1985 Tara McKenna 87 Westport, Connecticut Dean Schneble 87 Plainsboro, New Jersey