Final Results
The Albright College women's swimming team used superior depth to end a three-year drought and win its ninth Middle Atlantic Conference title since 2000, Sunday in the Wilkes-Barre CYC pool.
Head coach
John Stuhltrager won his sixth women's Coach of the Year award (and ninth overall), while freshman
Amanda Osterlind earned the MAC Rookie of the Year award. Widener's
Laura Farrar earned the David B. Eavanson Most Outstanding Swimmer award.
The meet was incredibly close early in the session, as the Lions led Widener by exactly four points after the evening's first two events.
Albright pulled away due to its depth, opening up a gap in the 100 free and 200 breast despite the Pride winning both races.
Widener's
Kelsey Lake took the 100 free, but
Codi Herr (second, 53.47),
Gwen Stefan (fourth, 55.26),
Aimee Snyder (fifth, 55.50) and
Katy Oeste (12th, 56.80) all scored to help the Lions go ahead by 21 points.
Widener's Farrar then won the 200 breast with a pool record 2:23.89, but four Lions got into the top 10 to further stretch their advantage.
Kari Keller (2:28.65) was second,
Lauren Cormier (2:33.86) was fifth,
Liz Muller (2:37.57) placed seventh and
Emily Summers (2:42.96) came in the 10th spot.
Osterlind had won the 1650 free in a time of 18:10.05, with Muller grabbing fifth (18:46.51). Also placing was
Alyce Mancini, whose time of 20:09.49 was good for 15th overall.
Albright led Widener 485-481 at that point, and incredibly still had the same four-point lead after the 200 back.
Kaitlyn Huizing (2:12.28) was fifth, missing third place by just .26 seconds.
Tricia Janowiak was seventh, in 2:15.89.
Madison Hauk grabbed third place in the 200 fly (2:16.41), the day's penultimate event, all but locking up the meet for the Lions.
Danielle Hassard was 15th in the race.
All the Lions had to do to win the championship was not be disqualified on the final 400 free relay. Herr, Janowiak and Stefan led Albright to a clean third place finish, and senior
Aimee Snyder swam the anchor leg, touching the wall to officially mark her graduating class' first MAC title.