STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - The Lady Barons second competition of the season featured an exciting home meet, defeating Alfred State College (154-22), and losing to Bethany College (139-79). Strong performances came from senior Molly Coogan, junior Kathleen Lamontagne, and freshman Nicole Marshall all of whom set new team records. The Barons diving team also had a strong showing with returning diver Kelli Rankin accompanied by two new divers: freshmen Jessica Kincaid and freshman Julia Hall.
"I think they did fantastic today; some of the girls swam better than I was expecting and hoping for," head coach Rebecca Recznic said. "We set some goals to meet at the beginning of the season and I think every single one of them hit their goal for today."
The Barons started off strong with a new team record in their first individual event of the night, by junior Kathleen Lamontagne in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 12:04.12. Lamontagne started the race strong remaining neck and neck with the Bethany swimmer next to her, but was unable to keep the pace and dropped to second, finishing with a new team record.
Two more records came from senior captain Molly Coogan in the 200-yard individual medley (2:32.04) and in the 100-yard breaststroke. Coogan achieved the goal she set for herself of swimming under a 1:20.00. She finished in second place with a time of 1:19.03, another new team record.
Many of the Lady Barons swam multiple events, including freshman Nicole Marshall. Marshall had some outstanding swims, including the 100-yard backstroke where she finished with a time of 1:07.96 and a new pool record.
"We have a very large group of freshman this year and it's exciting to see that they're so strong already," Recznik said. "To think that I have them for 3 more years shows a lot of promise for the future."
The Lady Barons diving team also had a strong performance with two new divers. All three Franciscan divers competed against one competitor from Bethany College. Retuning diver Kellie Rankin lead the team with one great dive after another, placing first while freshman Julia Hall had a strong debut and finished in third.
"It's so exciting to have several divers this year, and two of them have been working really hard to get enough dives for this meet," Recznik said. "It was really exciting to have all three of them on the board; I know it means a lot to Kellie to finally have two fellow divers."
With an exciting start to the season in their home pool, the Lady Barons look forward to a great season.
"I'm really proud of them and excited that we're starting so strong," Recznik said. "We're just at the beginning of the season. We have so much more to go, so we'll see what happens."
Franciscan will compete next at Chatham University on Nov. 2, at 12pm.
