STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan women's swimming and diving team defeated Pitt.-Bradford (175-62) while falling to Baldwin Wallace (165-61) on Sunday in the final home meet of the season for the Lady Barons.
The double-dual meet also recognized Franciscan's three graduating seniors
Bernadette DiMaria,
Meaghan McCoy, and
Sarah Tohill. All three seniors swam the entirety of their college career at Franciscan with Tohill being the sole representative of the diving constituent for the past two. After recognizing their dedication to the swimming and diving team, the meet got underway with the 200-medley relay in which the Lady Barons were just outpaced for first place taking second to Baldwin Wallace in 2:02.15. The relay was composed of
Emily Reuwer,
Alicia Winters,
Colleen Farabaugh, and Katie Cunningham.
Farabaugh swam next in her second shot at the mile this season; a strongly paced swim with a fast finish, Farabaugh took third in 19:54.41. The 200 freestyle was the next event and saw the Lady Barons' Abi Schaefer take fourth in 2:25.02,
Abigail Robinson take fifth in 2:38.66, and
Marguerite Stonier round out sixth place in 3:10.22. A brief respite for the men to swim next saw the sprinters take to the blocks for the 50-yard freestyle. Junior
Maris Bey led the Lady Barons in a close race for fourth in a time of 29.46, teammates
Evelyn Nick (29.62) and
Olga Pierce (29.71) took fifth and sixth respectively.
Winters swam the next event in the 200-yard individual medley coming in third in 2:34.13 just being out touched at the wall for second after gaining ground on her opponents in the breaststroke leg of the race. The final 50 freestyle saw a close race for second but a strong finish to hold over third place.
Senior and diver Tohill took to the boards next coming in second place in the first round of five dives for 1-meter diving. The 100-yard butterfly saw a Lady Baron sandwich of first and sixth place with Reuwer taking a strong first in 1:02.17 and Bey taking sixth in 1:20.79. The 100's continued for the next two events seeing strong swims in the 100 freestyle by Cunningham (1:01.98) in fourth place, Pierce (1:08.31) in fifth place, and
Meaghan McCoy (1:18.73) in sixth place. Ruewer swam once more in the 100-backstroke taking third in 1:07.70 and teammate Schaefer rounded out sixth in 1:14.60.
The distance swimmers took to the blocks next for the 500-yard freestyle in which Farabaugh and Stonier raced to second (5:44.76) and fourth (8:31.44) respectively. Farabaugh's pacing led her to a strong finish and Stonier, swimming the 500 for the first time, set a good bar for the next time.
Tohill competed in the second round of 1-meter diving taking to the boards for her final six dives. Scoring 165.85 points, Tohill took away second once again but hit a high point for the season in points.
Cunningham and Winters swam next in the 100-yard breaststroke which saw Cunningham swim a close race for second (1:16.42) over Winters in third (1:18.71).
The final event of the meet was that of the 200-yard freestyle relay in which the Lady Barons A and B relays came in second (1:56.36) and third (2:24.42) respectively falling short of first by four seconds.
The Lady Baron swimming and diving team will begin to taper this coming week for the AMCC championships on February 13-16, but in the meanwhile will return to Hiram College for a dual meet this Saturday, Feb. 2 to test out their sprinting.
