STEUBENVILE, Ohio — Franciscan University women's swimming and diving team won their first home meet and fourth meet of the year, beating six-time Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference champion Penn State Behrend, 56-55 and Penn State Altoona 60-45.

Head coach Becky Recznik said the win was all a matter of strategizing and pulling together as a team to be able to finish ahead of both opponents.

"Because they won Conference last year, our goal for the year was to give Behrend a run for their money and we knew it would come down to just a couple points," Recznik said. "It really came down to every single girl who swam. If one person hadn't swum or Kellie Rankin hadn't done her dives we just wouldn't have won."

While Franciscan was neck and neck with Behrend throughout the night, sophomore swimmer Molly Coogan's second place time of 1:21.02 in the 100-yard breastroke, the team's second to last event, enabled the Lady Barons to pull ahead and finish the night just a point higher.

Among other standout Lady Baron performances was that of freshman Katie Oursler who returned from a two week illness and shaved 4 seconds off her personal record in the 100-yard backstroke and placed third with a time of 1:16.77. Freshman Aimee Vunovich also placed first in the 500-yard freestyle with a finals time of 6:00.83 and the 100-yard butterfly in which she dropped 2.5 seconds to achieve a new personal record of 58.96.

One swimmer Recznik was particularly proud of was sophomore Maria Giuliani, who achieved first place in both the 100 and 200-yard freestyle events with times of 58.96 and 2:07.22 respectively.

"This was Maria's first time competing in the 100-yard free this year. She's swum it before, in practice and last year, but the fastest she's ever swum it was a 1:01," Recznik said, "so she took 3 seconds off, which is incredible."

The swimmer attributed her success to the reason she swims: her faith.

"I've really been praying to be able to give it all up to God and use my body to glorify him," said Giuliani, "It was all Him out there, not me."

Overall, Recznik was proud of the team's constant desire to improve and added that she hopes this attitude will carry the girls through a season of increasing success.

"I think what's most encouraging is not just in the win itself but that every single meet, every single one of the girls has been consistently dropping their times," Recznik said. "It's been great to see that it's just a steady progression forward and now we're starting to see the fruits of our labor. These girls are really just buckling down, embracing the process, and now we're winning, which is so encouraging."

Thanks to the night's success, Recznik said the team will be motivated to work extra hard in the next two off-weeks in order to come back strong for its next meet: the two day Grove City Invitational that will take place on November 30th and December 1st.