Posted: 02/27/2013
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Five members of the Lehigh swimming and diving teams were named to the All-Patriot League teams announced Wednesday. Freshmen Carolyn Koch (first team) and Courtney Patterson (second) represent the Lehigh women, while on the men’s side junior Chris Hoke was named to the first team, and senior Demetri Karedis and sophomore Danny Bennett earned second team honors.
The Mountain Hawk men posted their eighth straight fourth place finish at last week’s league championship meet at Bucknell, while the women finished fifth for the second straight season.
The All-Patriot League teams are determined based on individual first and second place finishes at the Patriot League Championships as well as individual point totals from the championships. Both of Lehigh’s first team selections, Hoke and Koch, earned automatic second team All-League honors with runner-up finishes in individual events, and then moved up to the first team based on number of total points scored in the championship.
In three days of competition, Koch smashed three individual school records in the sprint freestyle events and was part of a relay team that set a fourth. On Thursday, Koch set a new school mark of 23.66 seconds, finishing seventh in the 50 yard freestyle and also swam on the 400 yard medley relay team that posted a school record time of 3:51.01. The second day of competition saw Koch break the school record in the 200 free, with a time of 1:49.66, while also competing on the 200 yard medley relay and 800 free relay teams that both finished fifth. Koch capped her championship performance by finishing second in the 100 free on Saturday with a record time of 50.99, while also swimming in the 400 free relay. Her 45 points scored at the championships tied for tenth among female swimmers.
Patterson also garnered All-League honors in her freshman season. She opened the championships with a school record in the 500 yard freestyle (4:54.91) and was also on the record-setting 400 medley relay team. Individually, Patterson also finished 11th in the 200 free and fifth in the 200 yard butterfly. Patterson also swam on the 800 and 400 free relay teams and tied for 29th among women with 33 points scored.
Hoke was the top scorer for the Lehigh men as he was named to the first team after earning second team honors as a sophomore. He posted the top individual finish for the Lehigh men with his second place finish in the 50 yard freestyle. On Thursday, Hoke was also a member of the Patriot League title-winning 200 free relay team that set a school record of 1:20.05 and brought home the first gold medal for Lehigh at the championships since 2008. Hoke also scored in the 100 fly (eighth) and the 100 free (fourth) and was a key member of three additional relay teams, including the school record-setting 200 medley relay squad. His 43 points tied for 15th among men.
Karedis was right alongside Hoke in a number of events as he earned his first All-League laurels. Karedis was a member of the gold medal-winning 200 free relay team and in Thursday morning’s preliminaries, broke his own school record in the 50 free, clocking in at 20.19 seconds. He finished third in the finals of the 50 free and added a fifth place finish in the 100. Karedis anchored Lehigh’s school record-setting 200 medley relay team and also competed in the 400 medley relay and 400 free relay events. He tied for 33rd among men with 30 points.
Bennett earned second-team honors for the second straight year after leading the Mountain Hawks in the distance freestyle events. Bennett’s top finish was sixth in the 1650 yard freestyle. He added an eighth place finish in the 500 free and a ninth place finish in the 400 yard individual medley. Bennett also swam on the 800 free relay team that finished in fourth place. He scored 33 points to tie for 26th place.
A total of 72 men’s and women’s swimmers and divers appeared on the All-League teams. The Patriot League Championship winning Navy men and women led the way with 16 and 11 student-athletes selected respectively.