ERIE, Pa. – Senior Gwendolyn Lowery (Bellefonte, PA/Bellefonte) was named the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Swimmer of the Year for helping the Penn State Behrend women's swimming and diving team place second out of six teams at the AMCC Championships on Saturday night.
In a close race for the coveted title, Cabrini halted the Lions from their fourth straight title with 545 points. Behrend hoisted the runner-up trophy and accumulated 517.5 points in the four-day event. Alfred State was on the Lions heels with 512 for third and Penn State Altoona took fourth (184.5).
Franciscan and Pitt-Bradford were fifth and sixth with a score of 171 and 148, respectively.
In the opening 1650 freestyle, Lacey Grinnen (Warren, PA/Warren) paced Behrend in 19:33.00 for third place overall to keep within four points of Cabrini at 423-399.
Abigail Witmer (Herndon, VA/Herndon) was the runner up in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:13.49, falling short of first place by .38 seconds. Jessica Rettger (Bradford, PA/Bradford) was eighth in 2:35.26 to earn five points for the Lions.
Through 31 events, the Cavaliers went ahead 450-411.
Behrend came back with three swimmers in the top three spots in the 100 freestyle led by Jessica Wyckoff (Elma, NY/Iroquois). The sophomore earned her second individual championship with a time of 53.67. She edged teammate Maryn Horn (Houston, TX/Jersey Village), who was runner up in 53.84. Paola Maldonado (San Juan, Puerto Rico) tied Danielle Bye from Penn State Altoona for third place with a time of 56.26.
Devon van Rensburg (Johannesburg, South Africa/Sagrados Corazones) had the fastest time for the Lions in the 200 breaststroke, touching in 2:50.44 for fifth place. With second and sixth in the breaststroke, Cabrini stretched it to a 16.5 point lead after 35 events.
The team of Wyckoff, Lowery, Danielle Martinez Rios (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico/Sagrados Corazones) and Horn had almost a 10 second lead over the Cavaliers to win the final 400 freestyle relay in 3:44.17 but it was not enough to get the come-back victory.