ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's and women's swimming and diving teams are ready to defend their Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) titles with the championships this week and weekend hosted by Grove City in conjunction with the James E. Longnecker Invitational.
The meet features a trials and finals session each day, beginning Wednesday night with diving at 7:30 p.m. The preliminaries for swimming events begin on Thursday at 10 a.m. The meet will conclude with finals on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
The men's team has six returning individual champions to help the Lions in capturing their 10th straight AMCC crown. The Lions are led by Nick Roth (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin), Nick Kost (Ashburn, VA/Stone Bridge), Victor Nguyen (San Jose, CA/Evergreen Valley), Ty Elder (Brentwood, CA/Heritage) and Mark Patterson (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin).
Roth is shooting for his third AMCC title in the 500 free. He also won the 200 free and 200 butterfly at last year's meet, while tying former teammate Dan Simon for the highest point getter with 27 points. Kost enters the championships looking to defend his titles in the 200 IM and 400 IM, while Nguyen hopes to repeat as champion in the 100 breaststroke and change his runner-up status from a year ago in the 200 breaststroke.
Participating in his first AMCC Championship, Patterson brings the top times in the conference in the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke, along with the 100 freestyle. Elder hopes to close out his final season with repeat wins on four relay teams and gun for the championship in the 100 freestyle.
The women are in search for their ninth conference championship in 2016 and will rely on Maryn Horn (Houston, TX/Jersey Village), Gwendolyn Lowery (Bellefonte, PA/Bellefonte), Allie Schneider (Erie, PA/McDowell) and Anna Rose Watterson (Baldwin, PA/Seton-La Salle).
Horn, who holds the top time in the conference in the 50 free and 100 backstroke, earned one individual and two relay wins in 2015. Lowery returns as a two-time individual champion and four-time relay winner from last year's meet. She currently holds the fastest time in the AMCC in five events. The sophomore looks to defend her title in the 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle.
Schneider could make a splash in the 200 backstroke for Behrend this weekend. She has the second-fastest time in the AMCC in that event and is fifth in the 100 backstroke entering the meet. Watterson looks to win her first conference title in the distance events. Last year, she placed second in the 1650 free and 500 free. Watterson currently has the second fastest time in the conference in the 1650 free and ranks third in the 1000 free.
