The Clarion University women and men’s swimming and diving teams competed Saturday at Duquesne. Both teams recorded losses.

The women’s team was defeated 110-90, while the men lost 108-83.
Coach Mark Vandyke said, “We had some people that did very well and some who underachieved.”

The Lady Eagles now hold a record of 2-1. Kaitlyn Johnson and Kelly Connolly both kept up their swimming style of winning. Johnson won the 100 butterfly and Connolly took the 100 breaststroke and second in the 100 freestyle.

Also winning an individual event was Kayla Shull, who won the 100 backstroke. The Lady Eagles also took all of the relays.

The team of Johnson, Jamie Maloney, Shull and Gina Mattucci took the 200 free and the 200 medley was won by Shull, Connolly, Johnson and Mattucci. Mattucci took second in the 50 freestyle behind Meghan McGoldrick of Duquesne. Morgan Oberlander took second in the 400 IM and the 500 freestyle.

“Our team is swimming tired right now and going up against Duquesne we knew that it would be a tough meet. We pulled together as a team and gave it our all,” Shull said.

The men’s team holds a record of 1-2. The mens team took a lot of second place finishes Saturday, but Ryan Thiel was able to bring a win.

Theil blew the 50 freestyle out of the water with a time of 21.25.

Rich Ekert took second in the 100 breaststroke while teammate Dustin Fedunok was second in the 500 freestyle.

Vandyke enjoys coaching both teams.

“It actually makes the coaching process easier. It presents great opportunities in practice for the women to compete against the men,” Vandyke said.

Coach Vandyke said the greatest challenge of coaching both teams “is probably dealing with the relationship issues between the men and women.”
“Practices don’t get tougher after a loss because we are working towards Akron right now, which is in December, and we are just trying to swim our bests while being worn down. As for Bloomsburg, we know we have to pull together as a team,” Shull said.

Both teams will take on Bloomsburg Saturday.