WASHINGTON, P.a.— The Franciscan University women's swimming and diving team traversed the snow-covered roads to take on Washington and Jefferson College and Hiram College in a short course meet. Franciscan lost to Washington and Jefferson 67-35 and lost to Hiram 63-48.
The team was challenged by more than one obstacle as they were swimming a different kind of meet than they were used to against faster teams and arrived late to the meet due to the road conditions.
"It was just a challenging meet overall," head coach Becky Recznik said. "200 events are just a lot more taxing on the swimmers physically because it's a much longer swim and also mentally it takes a lot more concentration and focus."
Not to be shaken by the challenges, junior Maria Guiliani continued to shine as she placed second in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:05.95. Freshman Nicole Marshall also placed well for the team coming in first in the 200-yard backstroke in 2:24.94.
"Overall the team pulled their morale together and they stayed positive," Recznik said.
"Our captains kept reminding the team that when we encounter adversity we have to be ready to embrace the challenge and remain focused and trust the training that we've done."
The 200-yard freestyle relay of Guiliani, Marshall, Molly Coogan, and Aimee Vunovich proved ready to take on the challenge as they finished first with a time of 1:52.74. Vunovich filled Kathleen Lamontagne's spot since she is studying abroad in Austria this semester.
"Aimee has really taken Kathleen's spot and we're basically back to the times we were at previously," Recznik said. "That's really exciting that although we lost Kathleen we haven't lost our chance to win some relays."
Also performing well for the Lady Barons was diver Kelli Rankin as she placed third in the 3-meter diving with a score of 169.90. Rankin doesn't have the opportunity to dive on a 3-meter board often and doesn't have access to one to practice on.
"She knows we're limited with training and she has the diving coach Kateri Lang to help her prepare mentally," Recznik said. "Diving is such a mental sport so it takes a lot of strength of mind and strength of will to just get up and conquer her fears and just go for it."
The Lady Barons compete next at Chatham University on Feb. 1 at 1:00pm to continue to prepare for the championships.
"I'm really hopeful that we'll keep dropping some times for these next couple of weeks," Recznik said. "I think it's easy to forget how fast the pool is at championships and how exciting that is and the challenge it presents so I think it was good for the girls to get a taste of that now."
