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Feb. 20, 2009
For the second straight night, IUP senior Jen Price broke a school record and took a second place finish while David Donovan earned an NCAA B cut and set a school freshman mark to highlight the second day of the PSAC championships at Cumberland Valley High School. Price was second in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:00.16 in the finals after posting an NCAA A cut time of 4:59.72 in the prelims earlier in the day. Price was the top seed in the finals but fell 2.26 seconds behind Ester Bosch of California in the finals. Price's time in the prelims broke Heather Packard's 10-year-old school record of 5:07.34 by almost eight seconds. With her NCAA A cut time, Price becomes the first IUP woman to qualify for nationals since Luci Plaxton in 2006. Price was also second and set a school record in the 1000 freestyle on the first night of the meet Thursday. Donovan took his second seventh place finish of the meet with his time of 4:43.21 in the men's 500 freestyle. He posted an NCAA B cut time of 4:42.43 in the prelims and broke the IUP freshman record of 4:44.35 previously held by Hamilton Terrell. Donovan came within 1.11 of Terrell's school record of 4:41.32 set in 2003. Jeff Gavin posted a time of 4:42.67 in the prelims of the 500 freestyle and missed the NCAA B cut by just .05 seconds. Gavin finished eighth with a time of 4:47.07 in the finals. Two other IUP swimmers reached the championship finals, with Casey Beck finishing fifth in the women's 200 individual medley (2:11.41) and Dylan Mudlo taking seventh in the men's 200 individual medley (1:58.21). The men's 400 medley relay turned in the best relay performance Friday with the team of Gavin, Mudlo, Pawel Glowiak and Jason Mohring finishing third in 3:28.39. The 200 freestyle relay unit of Glowiak, Luke Shaheen, Walter Smith and Jimmy Yelinek was fifth in 1:26.45. In the women's relays, the 400 medley team of Price, Beck, Kate Rowe and Melissa Kucharczuk was fifth in 3:58.76 while the 200 freestyle relay squad of Kucharczuk, Galit Regev, Brittany Watkins and Erin Barbetta was seventh in 1:38.51. Other scorers for the IUP men were Glowiak, who was 10th in the 200 individual medley (1:56.43), and Smith (22.02) and Shaheen (22.38), who were 14th and 16th, respectively, in the 50 freestyle. Contributing points for the women were Watkins (2:12.86) and Rowe (2:15.04), who were 10th and 12th, respectively, in the 200 individual medley, and Kara Peters, who was 16th in the 500 freestyle (5:18.40). The IUP men are in fourth place in the team standings with 127 points, trailing West Chester (252), Clarion (196) and Shippensburg (161). The women are fifth with 123.5 points, trailing Clarion (206), West Chester (193.5), California (145) and Gannon (127). The four-day meet continues Saturday and Sunday. |
