BALTIMORE, Md.—Sophomore Sean Martinez (Willow Grove, Pa. / Upper Moreland) posted the Lycoming College men's swimming team highest individual finish of the meet so far as both the men's and women's swimming team set more personal benchmarks at the Landmark Conference Swimming & Diving Championships at the Mangione Aquatic Center on Saturday, Feb. 14.
Lycoming's men finished the day in eighth and the women in ninth, while Catholic remains in front on the men's side and Scranton holds a slight edge on the women's front.
Martinez turned in a 1:50.48 qualifying time in the 200-yard freestyle, setting a season-best and finishing 10th in the preliminaries, earning a trip to the consolation finals, where he trimmed his time to 1:50.16 and finished 12th.
The Warriors also competed in the 200-yard freestyle relay on both sides. For the men, Martinez, junior Drew Degnan (Elmira, N.Y. / Elmira), junior Will Eberz (Stroudsburg, Pa. / Stroudsburg) and first year Jason Ricci (Cherry Hill, N.J. / Cherry Hill) finished in 1:36.38. The women's side, meanwhile, saw the group of Elizabeth Eberz (Stroudsburg, Pa. / Stroudsburg), Gwyn Fox (Altoona, Pa. / Altoona Area), senior Megan Klansek (Hanover, Pa. / Southwestern), and first year Vanessa Cook (Seekonk, Mass. / Seekonk) finish in 1:53.03.
The Warriors notched four personal bests and two more seasonal benchmarks during Saturday's races.
On the men's side, first year Dominic De Mar (Phoenix, Ariz. / Horizon) turned in a 5:05.46 in the 400-yard individual medley, obliterating his personal best by more than 47 seconds. Degnan clocked a 56.33 in the 100-yard butterfly, shaving a tenth of a second off his previous mark and missing the finals by just over a second. Ricci also narrowly missed the finals in the 100-yard backstroke, notching a 19th-place mark of 57.81 that was more than a second faster than his previous best and less than three-quarters of a second below the cut line.
The women's side was highlighted by Fox, who turned in a 2:09.27 mark in the 200-yard freestyle, finishing in 17th. In the same event, senior Megan Lonergan (York, Pa. / York Suburban) clocked a season-best 2:15.98 while Eberz finished with a 2:19.16, knocking over nine seconds off her previous low. In the 100-yard backstroke, Klansek finished with a season-best 1:13.60, notching a 19th-place finish.
The championships will conclude on Sunday, Feb. 15, with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. and the finals getting underway at 5 p.m. Champions will be crowned in the men's and women's 1,650-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, and 400-yard freestyle relay, in addition to crowning team and individual conference awards.
