The Albright College women's swimming team used superior depth to end a three-year drought and win its ninth Middle Atlantic Conference title since 2000, Sunday in the Wilkes-Barre CYC pool. The Albright men won their second consecutive league title.Head coach John Stuhltrager won his sixth women’s Coach of the Year award (and ninth overall), while freshman Amanda Osterlind earned the MAC Rookie of the Year award. Widener’s Laura Farrar earned the David B. Eavanson Most Outstanding Swimmer award.
The meet was incredibly close early in the session, as the Lions led Widener by exactly four points after the evening’s first two events.
Albright pulled away due to its depth, opening up a gap in the 100 free and 200 breast despite the Pride winning both races.
Widener’s Kelsey Lake took the 100 free, but Codi Herr (second, 53.47), Gwen Stefan (fourth, 55.26), Aimee Snyder (fifth, 55.50) and Katy Oeste (12th, 56.80) all scored to help the Lions go ahead by 21 points.
Widener’s Farrar then won the 200 breast with a pool record 2:23.89, but four Lions got into the top 10 to further stretch their advantage. Kari Keller (2:28.65) was second, Lauren Cormier (2:33.86) was fifth, Liz Muller (2:37.57) placed seventh and Emily Summers (2:42.96) came in the 10th spot.
Osterlind had won the 1650 free in a time of 18:10.05, with Muller grabbing fifth (18:46.51). Also placing was Alyce Mancini, whose time of 20:09.49 was good for 15th overall.
Albright led Widener 485-481 at that point, and incredibly still had the same four-point lead after the 200 back. Kaitlyn Huizing (2:12.28) was fifth, missing third place by just .26 seconds. Tricia Janowiak was seventh, in 2:15.89.
Madison Hauk grabbed third place in the 200 fly (2:16.41), the day's penultimate event, all but locking up the meet for the Lions. Danielle Hassard was 15th in the race.
All the Lions had to do to win the championship was not be disqualified on the final 400 free relay. Herr, Janowiak and Stefan led Albright to a clean third place finish, and senior Aimee Snyder swam the anchor leg, touching the wall to officially mark her graduating class' first MAC title.
Freshman Ricky Sutton earned both the David B. Eavanson Most Outstanding Swimmer and Rookie of the Year awards, while head coach John Stuhltrager won his third men's Coach of the Year award (and ninth overall).
The Lions won their sixth MAC title with a point total of 828, ahead of Misericordia (721.5) and more than doubling the third place finisher (Widener, 404 points).
Sutton set a laundry list of records in his 1650 free victory to open the final session. Sutton swam 16:15.68, a school record, pool record, MAC championships record, and NCAA “B” qualifier. He also broke the school record in the 1000 free en route.
Albright dominated the 1650 free, sweeping the top four places. Zach McElheny (16:59.06), Rainer Floeter (17:03.55) and Sean Spellacy (17:11.83) went 2-4 to give the Lions a massive point haul. In the B final, Chris Longworth was ninth and Dan Cahill was 12th.
The Red and White's depth also shown through in the 200 fly, as Adam Kurtz (1:56.25), Adam Vogel (1:57.65) and Zach McElheny (1:58.93) went 1-2-3. Matt Bauer (2:01.51) was fifth and Drew Leahy (2:06.75) was seventh.
Freshman Ralph Porrazzo just missed going three-for-three in individual races, taking second in the 100 free in 47.59. Albright filled the podium there as well, with Mike McBride (48.00) in third and Tim Pierce (48.90) in fifth. Bobby McNair and Rich Edwards came in 12th and 13th, respectively.
Josh Park (sixth, 2:16.44) and Sam Rosenthal (ninth, 2:18.32) scored in the 200 breast, and Dan Cahill (2:07.44) was seventh in the 200 back.
Albright wrapped up a dominating season that saw the Lions go undefeated in dual meets against Division III opposition and win the league meet by a wide margin with a second place finish in the concluding 400 free relay.