MEADVILLE, Pa. – The Allegheny men’s and women’s swimming and diving team will compete at the 26th annual North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championships this weekend. The three-day event will be held from Thursday through Saturday at the C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton, Ohio.
The Denison men and women are looking to repeat as conference champions after capturing the crowns last year. The Kenyon Lords and Ladies will contest to get back the NCAC titles they claimed in previous years. The Gator men, who posted a 6-6 dual-meet record this season, are aiming to improve on their sixth-place finish while the women look to place higher than third from a year ago.
The meet features a trials and finals session each day, beginning with Thursday’s preliminaries at 10 a.m. The meet concludes with the finals on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
Leading the way for the Allegheny women will be freestylers Ariana Lyons, Megan Knox and Ashley Whitehead. In the distance events, Knox will push to place in the 1650-yard free while Christine Smith will also contribute for the Gators. Lyons holds the fastest time on the squad in the 50 free (24.64) and 100 free (53.63), but Whitehead is a close second in each event.
Knox clocked in at 18:12.60 for her season-best in the 1650 free and is four seconds ahead of Lauren Karl for the top time in the 500 free (5:19.59). Looking to record points for Allegheny in the breaststroke is Rachelle Barrett. Barrett has the Gators’ fastest times in the 100 and 200 breaststroke in 1:11.78 and 2:36, respectively. Molly Durot will be relied upon to help the Gators in the butterfly events. The freshman owns the team’s top time in the 100 (1:02.97) and 200 butterfly (2:15.62).
On the men’s side, Brandon Intrieri is Allegheny’s biggest threat in the sprints and the butterfly. He holds the 10th best time in the conference in the 100 free and is seeded 11th in the 50 free.
Josh Sesek returns to top his fourth-place finish in the 200 breaststroke at last year’s championships. He currently holds the fastest time on the squad in the 100 (1:00.07) and 200 breaststrokes (2:12.52). Sesek and Christian Steinwarz will be the top contenders in the individual medley and butterfly. Sesek has a team-leading time of 2:00.15 in the 200 IM and Steinwarz is the fastest on the team in the 200 butterfly (2:02.64) and 400 IM (4:26.05).
The Gators are also turning to Mirno Pasquali to score in the backstroke events, while Matt Gauthier and Brandon Stilley will battle in the distance freestyle events.
Follow the championship website for up-to-date results and standings at www.alleghenysports.com/ncac