Warrior Men, Women Finish Fourth at MAC's
Another Pair of School Marks Fall on Third Day

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. --- Lycoming swimming capped its excellent 2005-06 regular season with a strong showing at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships with a pair of fourth place finishes.  On the men’s side, the Warriors racked up 403 points as Widener University (817), Albright College (674), and the University of Scranton (425) finished ahead of Lycoming.  The Lady Warriors finished the three day affair with 429 points trailing Albright (723), Scranton (638), and Juniata College (446) in the final placings.

Day three of the event was no different than the first two as the Warriors were outstanding in the waters of the Wilkes-Barre CYC.  Two more school records fell in the effort, both in the men’s ranks.  Whether a record was broken or not, the Warriors hit their taper (targeted workout, with length differing by program, with the purpose of shaving time from early season scores) perfectly with time drops by nearly six seconds in some instances.

Junior Chris Dempsey (Newtown, Pa./Notre Dame) started re-writing the books with an outstanding time in the 1,650-yard freestyle, finishing sixth in the event.  His 17:31.17 time broke a nine-year old record previously held by recent Lycoming College Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Neil Ryan (17:33.07).  In fact, he was so strong in the event that he nearly broke the 1,000-yard record in during the first split of the event.

Senior Jeff Swatkins (Guilford, Conn./Xavier) made it two records for the Warrior men with a fourth place finish in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:01.03, more than a half-second faster than the previous top time (2:01.68).  Joining Swatkins in the men’s 200-yard butterfly were several strong Warrior performances, most notably freshman Brian Fausel’s (Burdett, N.Y./Watkins Glen) seventh place showing with a time of 2:06.52.  Fellow seniors Steve Hawley (New Cumberland, Pa./Trinity) and Stuart Olsen (Evanston, Ill./Evanston) finished third and fourth in the 100-yard freestyle, an event that featured the first four places separated by only 0.78 seconds.  Hawley touched out with a time of 48.39 seconds while Olsen clipped at his heels, finishing in 48.87 seconds.

Freshman Julie Harahush (Pottsville, Pa./Pottsville) continued to make headlines for the women as she pushed for conference Rookie of the Year honors.  During her preliminary heat in the 100-yard freestyle, Harahush ripped off a 54.55 second time falling just short of her own record set earlier in the season.  She ended up finishing second in the race with a finals’ time of 54.57 seconds.

The women’s 200-yard backstroke was the most successful individual event for the Warriors with three swimmers placing in the top seven.  Senior Kelly Sykes (Willimantic, Conn./Windham) continued her strong meet with a third place showing in 2:14.87.  Freshmen Milvana Ban (Harrisburg, Pa./Bishop McDevitt) and Nichole Zoller (Colonia, N.J./Union Catholic) capped outstanding first MAC meets with sixth and seventh place finishes in 2:17.60 and 2:17.79, respectively.

Junior Amy Gatehouse (Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park) was also strong on the women’s side, picking up her second individual third place spot with a 2:33.57 time in the 200-yard breaststroke.

Equally impressed by all the great individual performances, Lycoming head coach Jerry Hammaker was especially pleased with the unexpected strength of the Warrior relay teams.  Both Warrior 400-yard freestyle relays teams picked up third place finishes with the women falling just short of the school record in a time of 3:45.54.  The men rang in with a very impressive 3:16.62 time.

For complete results on all three days of the 2006 Middle Atlantic Conference Swimming Championships, please visit the Lycoming swimming webpage at www.lycoming.edu/sports/swim/main.htm.

For a look at complete day three results, click here.