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Five School Records Fall for Bucknell Women's Swimming and Diving on Day One of PL Championships
Feb. 19, 2009 LEWISBURG, Pa. - Five events took place on the first day of the Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday and the host Bucknell women's squad smashed school records in four of them. Swimming in their own pool, the Bison broke records in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the 400 medley relay, the 200 individual medley and the 50 free. Within the medley relay, the 100 backstroke record fell, giving Bucknell swimmers five new records in all. Bucknell stands third in the standings with 172 points. Defending champion Colgate, which combined with second-place Navy to claim all five gold medals on Thursday, is first with 210 points. The Mids are second with 195. American is a distant fourth with 98 points. Lauren Russell (Lower Burrell, Pa./Burrrell) and Molly Goebel (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) etched their names at the top of the 200 IM and 50 free lists, respectively. Russell eclipsed the program record twice on Thursday. She swam the 200 IM in 2 minutes, 4.04 seconds in the preliminaries, beating out Darby Golino's record (2:06.46) by nearly 2.5 seconds. Russell, who finished second in the finals, bettered that time with a 2:03.98. Russell was one of four Bison to either join the 200 IM top-10 list or improve their standing on it. Abigail Atkinson (Newtown, Conn./Newtown), who finished third in the finals with a time of 2:04.76, also bettered Golino's record twice on the day. Megan Mongan (Malvern, Pa./Villa Maria Academy), who was eighth in the finals, swam a career-best 2:06.01 in the prelims to move from sixth to third on the list, while Kristen Bucaria (Smithtown, N.Y./Hauppauge) timed in at 2:08.81 in the B-final to move to eighth in Bucknell history. The Bison had similar success in the 50 free. Molly Goebel (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) broke Meghan Freese's previous record by .02 with a 23.20 in the prelims. Goebel then finished fourth in the finals with a 23.27, one spot ahead of Courtney Warren (Montour Falls, N.Y./Watkins Glen), who swam a career-best 23.36 for the third-fastest time in program history. Alex Lovallo (Ridgefield, Conn./Ridgefield) also bettered her personal best twice, swimming a 24.00-second race in the prelims and then bettering that in the finals (23.91). She now ranks as the seventh-fastest swimmer in the 50 free in school history. Bucknell finished second (to Colgate) in the 400 medley relay and third (to Colgate and Navy) in the 200 free relay Thursday evening, but still easily set program records. The 400 medley relay team of Warren, Macey Keath (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest), Goebel and Mongan swam a time of 3:46.73, bettering the old mark by .75 seconds. Warren (backstroke) set a new school record (55.10) on her leg of the relay. Goebel, Mongan, Lovallo and Warren swam a 1:33.45 in the 200 free relay, smashing the old record by nearly 1.5 seconds. Jamie Chakany (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) placed sixth in the 500 free and bettered her personal best twice (in the prelims and finals). Her time of 4:59.59 in the prelims places her third in program annals. Her previous best was 5:06.58. Atkinson, Goebel, Mongan, Russell and Warren have all been honored as All-Patriot League swimmers in the past. The three-day Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championships will continue Friday at Kinney Natatorium with the prelims slated for 10:30 a.m. and the finals set for 6 p.m. Among the events to be contested on Friday are the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 free, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, women's one-meter diving and a pair of relays.
Standings (after day 1 of 3)
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