Owens Leads Behrend Past Panthers

BRADFORD, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend women's swimming and diving team picked up their first dual-meet victory of the New Year with a 99-94 win over Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) rival Pitt-Bradford on Friday night.

In a close meet between two conference teams, the Lions managed to fend off the Panthers down the stretch for the win.

Allie Schneider (Erie, PA/McDowell), Kristin Owens (Erie, PA/McDowell), Gwendolyn Lowery (Bellefonte, PA/Bellefonte), Jessica Wyckoff (Elma, NY/Iroquois), the 200 medley relay for Behrend, took home first place with a time of 1:59.99 to start the night.

The Lions won the next two events starting with Anna Rose Watterson (Baldwin, PA/Seton-La Salle) in the 1000 freestyle. She won by almost two minutes with a time of 11:58.91. Lowery then won the 200 freestyle in 2:04.08, beating one competitor in Wehonna Toth (2:18.77).

After Schneider took third in the 100 backstroke (1:09.13), Behrend bounced back to winning ways with a first-place finish in the 100 breaststroke thanks to Owens in 1:19.02.

In the 50 free, Wyckoff placed second in 26.59 and Claire Mallick (Pittsburgh, Pa/Woodlands) earned points for third (29.40). The same two repeated the exact places in the 100 freestyle with times of 57.70 and 1:06.74, respectively.

Schneider collected nine points for her win in the 200 backstroke. She touched in 2:29.33. Once again in the distance events, Watterson was four seconds short of first with a time of 5:53.85 for second in the 500 freestyle.

In addition to the victory in the 100 breaststroke, Owens picked up her second individual win in the 100 butterfly (1:08.71). The Lions then clinched the meet with first and third-place finishes in the 200 IM. Owens was a triple winner on the day, winning this event in 2:34.50 and Watterson following in third (2:39.95).

The foursome of Wyckoff, Schneider, Mallick and Lowery were edged in the 200 freestyle relay by 2.10 seconds for the last event of the evening. (1:51.89).

Behrend returns to action tomorrow at Allegheny with St. Vincent. Meet begins at 1 p.m.