Sara Ketron ’27 was named Bison Athlete of the Week after an impressive run at the Patriot League Championships. Ketron broke three school records, won a silver medal with the 400-yard freestyle relay and finished scoring as one of the top 15 over the weekend.
Ketron broke a 16-year-old school record in the 50 free, the oldest swimming record in the books. Previously held by Molly Goebel’s 23.20 set in the 2009 Patriot League Championships, the 50 free record was bested by Ketron’s performance in both the prelims and the A Finals, swimming 23.00 and 23.04 respectively. Ketron finished in fourth place, shy of the podium by just 0.02 seconds.
In the first race of the championships, Ketron help the Bison break the school record in the 200 medley relay. Ketron swam the freestyle leg, which is the anchor leg, for this record-setting relay. The efforts of Ketron and teammates Sofia Burns ’28, Hanna Bingley ’26 and Samantha Benzija ’27 resulted in a time of 1:41:35.
On Friday, Ketron led the 200 freestyle relay to success, setting another school record. Ketron, Kyla Kelly ’26, Virginia Hastings ’27 and Jennifer Bolden ’26 finished in fourth place. Their time of 1:32:70 was only 0.39 off the podium and 0.23 ahead of last year’s record-setting time. Ketron also made the A Finals and finished seventh in the 200 free.
On Saturday, Ketron finished the meet strong. She finished fourth in the 100 free at 50.69, moving her to third on Bucknell’s all-time fastest list.
In the final event of the meet, Ketron, Kelly, Bolden and Rylie Giles ’25 swam the second-fastest time in school history for the 400 free relay. The silver-medal time of 3:22:48 was 0.46 off the previous three-year record.
Ketron finished the meet with a score of 75 individual points, the second most earned by a Bison swimmer, trailing behind only the 88 points recorded by Patriot League Rookie of the Week Clara Renner ’28. Ketron’s 75 points brought her to 15th in the entire field and the highest place among all sophomores. The Bison finished third among 10 teams in the championship meet, only behind Navy and Army.
