Five Golden Rings For Women's Swimming & Diving

Five Golden Rings For Women's Swimming & Diving

GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend women's swimming and diving team can now count the number of Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championships on one hand after winning its fifth straight title on Saturday.

The Lions won with a score of 283 to beat second-place Penn State Altoona with 183. Behrend placed fifth out of the nine teams at the combined invitational.

In the six events, five more records were broken including a six-year old team record in the last 400 free relay. Katie Van Epps, Hillary MacManus, Anne Lawrence and Rachael Ragen made up the relay team that also set the AMCC record with a time of 3:43.29 for fourth place, taking 12 seconds off their preliminary time.

Lawrence set her own records in the 200 fly. She took fourth place with a time of 2:13.48, but her time of 2:13.24 in the preliminaries set the AMCC and team mark. Van Epps was right behind Lawrence in the 200 fly, clocking in at 2:15.75 for fifth.

Julie Cook set the AMCC and team record in the 200 breaststroke during the preliminaries and did even better in the finals with a fifth-place time of 2:33.25.

Ragen and MaryEllen Spooner also broke records in their individual events. Ragen was first in the conference and eighth overall in the 100 free for a record time of 55:32 in the prelims and her final time was 55.94.

Spooner also took eighth place, but in the 200 back with a time of 2:14.72 for both a conference and program record. 

Emily Frederick was the lone diver for the Lions, recording a score of 210.65 in the one-meter competition for 12th overall.