Piscataway, NJ (2/19/10) – The Montclair State men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams set a new pair of records in the relays as the Red Hawks closed out action on the first day of the 2010 Metropolitan Swimming and Diving Championships held at Rutgers University’s the Sonny Werblin Rec Center on Friday evening.

The men’s 200 freestyle and women’s 400 medley relay teams each established new school standards as the Red Hawks picked up where they left off last year when they set five new school records.

The men’s quartet of Nikolas Lumkong (Andover, NJ / Pope John XXIII), Thomas Long (Morristown, NJ / Morristown), Zak Westerberg (Hamilton, NJ / Hamilton North) and Blaise Lacca (Sewell, NJ / Washington Township) broke the school record set four years ago as they finished third in the event with a time of 1:26.02. That time easily eclipsed the old standard of 1:27.86 set during the 2006 Metropolitan Championships.

Meanwhile, after taking nearly a quarter of a century to establish a new mark in the women’s 400 medley relay, it took less than year for that time to fall as Kelly Abner (Glenwood, NJ /Vernon), Laura Spadoni (Nazareth, PA / Nazareth Area), Laura Flynn (Andover, NJ / Lenape Valley) and Ashley Vallone (Park Ridge, NJ / Park Ridge) timed in at 4:06.07 to set a new record, beating the previous one by .04 of a second. The team finished sixth overall in the event.

Elsewhere on the first day, Vallone, Spadoni, Abner and Christina Crossin (Milford, CT / Lauralton Hall) combined to place seventh in the 200 freestyle relay as they posted a time of 1:42.69. The men’s 400 medley relay of Sean Chamborvich (Allenhurst, NJ / Red Bank Regional), Chris Lee (Morris Plains, NJ / Parsippany Hills), Sean French (Cranford, NJ / Cranford) and Lacca finished 11th as they clocked in at 3:40.55.

Individually, Spadoni and Abner placed 11th (2:14.56) and 14th (2:18.70) respectively in the 200 individual medley while Chambrovich was 19th in the same event recording a time of 2:03.04. Freshman Michael Smith (Cherry Hill, NJ / Cherry Hill East) was 11th in the 500 freestyle (4:49.54 in the finals / 4:49.01 prelim) while Lumkong finished 10th in the 50 freestyle (21.97).

Diver Jaclyn Beck (West Milford, NJ / West Milford) was seventh in the 1-meter event as she totaled 315.55 points.

MSU continues action in the Metropolitan Championships on Saturday with the conclusion of the meet ending on Sunday, February 21.