Hiram, OH – The Franciscan swimming and diving team swam to victory over both Hiram College (137-87) and Washington and Jefferson College (165-62) Thursday night in their second meet of the spring semester.
 
Swimming for the first time in short course meters, the Lady Barons began the meet well with a first-place finish in the 200-medley relay in a time of 2:21.23; the relay composed Colleen Farabaugh (Fr), Katie Cunningham (Jr), Emily Reuwer (Fr), and Alicia Winters (Fr). Farabaugh would have a brief reprise before diving back into the pool for her first swim of the mile this season. Brilliantly outpacing both men and women in the combined heat, Farabaugh finished in first place with a school record of 19:53.29. Following upon the success of the mile, the Lady Barons, led by Cunningham (2:36.73), took second, third, and fourth in the 200-meter freestyle, freshman Abigail Robinson (3:00.41), and sophomore Andrea Beganskas (3:26.24) rounded out the placings respectively.
 
Sophomore Abigail Schaefer had a close race in the 100-meter backstroke but fell just short in the second 50 taking second place in 1:21.51. Senior Bernadette DiMaria took fifth in the backstroke with a time of 1:39.97, and Junior Marguerite Stonier took sixth in a time of 2:00.27. Then, not content with only swimming freestyle, Farabaugh dove back into the pool for the 100-breaststroke taking second place in a time of 1:28.58.
 
Emily Reuwer swam next for the Barons in the 200-meter butterfly; in what looked like it would become a solid second place Reuwer's pacing of each 50 in fact led her to first place over W&J's Kimber Randolph. Randolph had the lead over Reuwer in the first 100, having more than a second's advantage at each turn; however, the tables turned on the third 50 where Reuwer touched the wall with eight seconds advantage, and finished the race in a time of 2:50.96, nearly 18 seconds over second place.
 
Following upon their teammates' success the Barons swept first, second, and third place in the 50 freestyle; led by Schaefer in a time of 31.76, junior Maris Bey took a close second (32.48) over teammate and freshman Evelyn Nick in third (32.84). Next, senior Sarah Tohill took to the boards for 1-meter diving in which she took second place with 161.85 points. The sprinters took to the blocks for the 100 freestyle after the conclusion of the first diving event, and, led once more by Schaefer who took second place in a time of 1:10.81, took third and fourth as well. Third place went to Bey in a time of 1:14.72, and fourth went to freshman Olga Pierce in a time of 1:17.39.
 
With the meet just over its halfway point, Reuwer dove back into the pool to take another first place in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:43.69. Teammates Cunningham and Winters swam next in the 200 breaststroke where they picked up second (3:09.50) and third (3:11.67) respectively. Farabaugh and Stonier swam next in the 400-meter freestyle; Farabaugh setting a school record by just shy of a second took second place in 5:06.83, and Stonier, swimming the 400 for the first time in her college career took fifth in 7:30.68.
 
Reuwer's final race of the evening was the 100 butterfly where she put a definitive stamp on the event taking first place in 1:11.91, just two seconds shy of the school record of 1:10.01. Joining her were teammates Bey and Nick who battled it out for not just second place amongst the two of them but also third place. In the end, Nick had just the better of Bey, the former touching in a time of 1:34.27 and the latter in 1:34.50. Rounding out the final individual event of the meet Winters swam a solid second place swim in the 200-meter individual medley in a time of 2:56.65. Then with the individual events concluded, the relays once more took to the blocks. Franciscan's A relay, composed of Schaefer, Cunningham, Nick and Bey, stormed to first place in a school record of 2:06.62.
 
Commenting on the events of the evening Coach Zedick had this to say, "We had a great series of swims and it was evident all the hard work the team has put in thus far into the season. Swimming meters is new for many of them but they adapted well to the challenge and we will be that much more prepared when we return for our dual against Hiram on February second."
 
The Lady Barons swimming and diving team looks to Sunday at 12:00 to swim at home against Pitt.-Bradford and Baldwin Wallace University.