Women’s Swimming and Diving Place Second at Patriot League Championships

The women’s swimming and diving team was successful at the Patriot League Championships, placing second and ousting all other conference teams besides Navy. The four-day meet was hosted by Navy, starting on Feb. 19 and finishing up on Feb. 22.

“We are extremely happy with how Patriots went this weekend! While we beat Navy in a dual meet earlier in the year, we knew it would take a lot to beat them at Championships. We were able to close the gap between us to under 100 points which is a great accomplishment,” Kelly Pontecorvo ’14 said.

On the first day, the Bison were led by two relay teams setting school records with their performances. In the 200 medley relay, Emma Levendoski ’16, Ashley Henderson ’16, Kristen Purdy ’14, and Kaitlyn Utkewicz ’14 recorded a time of 1:42.94 to take third place overall, while Lauren Perry ’15, Stephanie Koziol ’15, Lyndsey Marcheskie ’16, and Rachel McGoff ’17 finished in fifth with a time of 7:24.74 in the 800 free relay. On the diving side, Tara Boyle ’15 recorded a career-best 265.90 to take second in the three-meter competition.

On the second day of competition, the Orange and Blue had impressive showings in the 200 IM and 500 free. Amber McDonnell ’17 took second in the 200 IM (2:02.14), and her teammates Diana Hanson ’17 and McGoff followed her in third and sixth, respectively. In the 500 free, Pontecorvo led the way in 4:50.38, earning her third, while teammate Perry  finished seventh. Perry, McGoff, Levendoski, and Utkewicz also got on the board in the 200 free relay, where their time of 1:34.82 earned them fifth.

“My highlight of the meet was standing on the podium the first night next to Diana Hanson after the 200 IM. She and I train together during IM sets at practice; she is a great teammate. We always push each other to try harder and swim faster,” McDonnell said.

On day three, the Bison propelled themselves into second place overall with many impressive individual performances. Boyle and Tori Molchany ’15 finished one-two in the one-meter diving competition, while Levendoski won the 100 backstroke and teammate Rachel Perry ’17 took fourth. Perry also took third in the 200 free, while Henderson and Hanson finished third and fifth in the 100 breast respectively. McDonnell’s time of 4:21.51 earned her third in the 400 IM, and she was followed by Koziol in sixth.

On the final day of the meet, the Orange and Blue were able to hang onto their position in second. Levendoski again had a first-place finish, this time winning the 200 backstroke with a school-record 1:56.56. McDonnell also continued her streak, taking fifth in the 200 fly. In the 1650 free, Pontecorvo finished third (16:31.42), while Koziol took ninth. The Bison also scored highly in the 200 breast, with Henderson taking sixth, Gina Gautieri ’15 taking seventh, and Meg Lattimer ’15 ninth.

“To get second we had to surpass a lot of tough competitors. Army, Lehigh and Boston were all very hard to beat this year, so the fact that we rose to the occasion and stepped up to beat them felt amazing,” McDonnell said.

Some members of the Bison squad will continue their season this weekend at the ECAC Championships in Annapolis, Md.