ALTOONA, Pa. - The final meet of the season before the AMCC championships saw Franciscan swimming and diving lose to a conference opponent the Lady Barons had defeated earlier in the season. It wasn't a disappointing effort, however, that led to the loss but instead a strategy geared for long-term success.

Head Coach Becky Recznik said her and her staff decided to use this meet as mental preparation for the Allegheny Mountain Collegian Conference championships instead of focusing on winning the meet.

"For all of our meets this year the strategy has been to put the girls who had the best chance to win a race into the race, whether they like that event or not," Recznik said. "This time we decided to put our girls in the races they chose to swim, to get better times in those races."

Recznik said the hope was for her girls to enjoy the meet and gain confidence by getting a chance to increase their times.

While the overall results didn't lead to a win, the strategy did pay off for a number of swimmers.

Sophomore sprinter Allie Kelly beat her previous personal record in the 100-yard freestyle by three seconds with a time of 1:12.15.

"To knock three seconds off of a 100-yard time is pretty impressive," Recznik said. "So that was really great for her."

Another solid performance for the Lady Barons came from swimmer and diver Kelly Rankin. The freshman finished in second on the 3-meter board with a score of 207.

Reznik was pleased with Kelly's results, particularly because Franciscan doesn't have a 3-meter board to practice on.

"She practices the dives as much as she can on the 1-meter board" Recznik said. "She really just has to show up to the meet and adjust to the height and the timing of the dive."

Sophomore Maria Giuliani, one of the top Lady Baron swimmers, won both of her events, including setting a new personal record in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:41.34.

With only the conference finals left, Recznik said her team will start to taper their workouts, swimming less total yards in practice to have players as fresh as possible at the end of a season that started training in September.

"I know they're tired, their bodies are tired," Recznik said. "At this point in the season rest is more important than building muscle."

With her team finishing the regular season in first place in the conference, Recznik said she feels good about her team's chances at winning the AMCC in the team's second year of existence.

"We're in a really good place right now going into championships," Recznik said. "I do feel confident."

The Lady Barons will travel to Grove City College for the four day conference finals from February 13-16.