Friday's Results
Mechanicsburg, Pa. - Behind two first place finishes in both of the relay events, the Clarion women took over first place on Friday night while the West Chester men maintained and slightly extended their lead, also taking first place in both relay events after the first full day of competition at the PSAC Swimming Championships. A total of six PSAC records were broken on Friday.
In the women's 200 freestyle relay, Clarion just edged out West Chester as the team of Kaitlyn Johnson, Tessa Hillsten, Gina Mattucci and Kelly Connolly beat out the Golden Rams by just .16 of a second, touching the wall in 1:34.11. California (Pa.) finished in third place, just .55 of a second out of first place. All three teams swam NCAA qualifying times.
The Golden Eagle 400 medley relay team of Courtney Bogue, Denise Simens, Johnson and Mattucci managed to outouch West Chester by just .24 of a second, winning in 3:47.97. Cal also finished third and all three teams again put up NCAA qualifying times. Both Clarion teams also set new PSAC championship and all-time marks with their swims.
Clarion's Kelly Connolly also took home an individual title, winning the 200 IM in 2:06.96, coming in just ahead of Kutztown's Steph Jeppesen, who finished .55 of a second behind her. Simens and Becca Burgess also finished in the top eight for Clarion, giving them three of the top eight finishers in the 200 IM and a big chunk of points.
West Chester's Jackie Borkowski succesfully defended her title in the 50 freestyle, breaking her own PSAC championship and all-time record by touching the wall in :22.92 seconds. Johnson and Mattucci finished second and fourth, respectively, for Clarion. In the 500 free, Cal's Ester Bosch won by over two seconds in 4:57.90, automatically qualifying her for NCAAs.
On the men's side, West Chester took first place in all five events, setting new PSAC records in three of them. Both relay teams took first place. The 200 free relay team of Matt Golebiewski, Brendan Fanslau, Josh Pauley and Rod King set a new PSAC record of 1:21.03 but barely edged out second place Clarion, which finished in 1:21.23. The 400 medley relay team just missed a new all-time PSAC record by under a second but set a new PSAC meet record, winning in 3:22.90.
Also setting a new PSAC record for the Golden Rams was Kenny McCormick in the 200 IM. He took first place by over four and a half seconds, winning in 1:50.52. Fanslau also set a new PSAC record with his victory in the 50 free, touching the wall in :20.25, just beating out defending champion Ryan Thiel of Clarion by .24 of a second. Golebiewski completed the Ram sweep on Friday night with a first place finish in the 500 free in 4:34.04.
The Golden Ram men extended their lead to just over 50 points with 252 points. Clarion is in second place with 196 points and Shippensburg is third with 161 points. On the women's side, Clarion has a very narrow lead with 206 points, just 12.5 points in front of second place West Chester, which has 193.5. California (Pa.) is in third with 145.