Women's Swimming
 

last updated 11/21/2009

KU women dominate Golden Bear Invitational

KUTZTOWN, PA. (November 21, 2009) - The Kutztown University women's swim team claimed first place at the Golden Bear Invitational on Saturday at the Keystone Pool. (Complete Results)

With a total of 726 points, the Golden Bears finished well ahead of second place Steven Tech (569) and East Stroudsburg (335). Montclair State finished with 239 points and Salisbury had 219 points to round out the top five.

Leading the Golden Bears was senior Steph Jeppesen (Bethlehem/Liberty), who had her hand in a series of first place finishes. Individually, Jeppesen claimed top honors in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.56),  200 breast (2:29.74) and 200 IM (2:11.03).

In the 400 free relay, Jeppesen, Nicole Hinsdale (Glen Mills/Bayard Rustin), Allison Sheely (Enola/Trinity) and Jordan Shapiro (Yardville, N.J./Princeton) set a KU pool record with a time of 3:40.33.

Shapiro (1:02.07) and Sheely (1:03.09) finished first and second, respectively, in the 100-back. Shapiro had a first-place finish in the 200 back, posting a time of 2:09.98.

Alex Crigler (Sinking Spring/Wilson) claimed the top spot in the 1,650 freestyle with a time of 18:01.328. Finishing in second was Heather Wolkom (Rumson, N.J./Rumson-Fair Haven) with a time of 18:07.78.

The Golden Bears will return to action on Saturday December, 5 at the Franklin & Marshall Invitational.

Kutztown's 800-yard free relay sets pool and meet record on first day of Golden Bear Invitational.

KUTZTOWN, PA. (November 20, 2009) – At the rate that the Kutztown University 800-yard free-relay quartet of junior Kerry Choplin (Thorofare, NJ/West Deptford), senior Steph Jeppesen (Bethlehem/Liberty), sophomore Lauren Malloy (Lancaster/Lancaster Catholic) and senior Heather Wolkom (Rumson, NJ/Rumson-Fair) is swimming, coach Tim Flannery may want to keep a bottle of white-out and a No. 2 pencil with a good eraser handy. (DAY ONE RESULTS)

The quartet began its assault on the school record by establishing a pool and meet record in the 800-free relay on the opening day of the annual Golden Bear Invitational at Keystone Pool Friday night. Choplin, Jeppesen, Malloy and Wolkom finished ahead of Stevens Tech in a time of 8 minutes, 1.67 seconds, nearly four seconds faster than the previous mark of 8:05.13 set two years ago at the Golden Bear Invitational.

With as fast as they are swimming, they’re not allowing the school mark to age. Choplin, Jeppesen, Malloy and Wolkom set the current school standard of 7:52.94 during the 2009 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) championship meet in February.

“It feels great to set a pool and meet record,” Wolkom said. “We wanted to break it badly. Plus our goal was to beat Stevens Tech in this event. So coming in to the meet, we wanted to kill two birds with one stone.”

Consider it done.

Wolkom entered the pool with the Golden Bears clinging to a razor-thin lead. With each stroke she took through the warm water, she could hear her teammates chanting and shouting encouragement to her, which gave her the motivation to speed up her already quick pace. As she completed her final lap and touched the wall first, Wolkom was oblivious to what had just had occurred. The win was important and the record was an added bonus.

“When I finished the race, I had no idea until I looked up and saw how excited everybody was,” Wolkom said. “That’s when I knew we had broken the pool and meet record. That was definitely one of our goals this season. I was freaking out at first because I knew the race was really close.”

After the opening day of the Golden Bear Invitational, Kutztown is in first place with a total of 382 points. Stevens Tech is second with 300. Other winners for Kutztown on the opening day were Jeppesen, who won the 200 individual medley (2:11.03) and 100 breaststroke (1:07.56), and sophomore Jordan Shapiro (Yardville, NJ/Princeton), who claimed the 200-yard backstroke (2:09.98). Kutztown’s 400-free relay team of Shapiro, Jeppesen, Malloy and junior Allison Sheely (Enola/Trinity) was victorious in 4:07.60.

The Golden Bears are enjoying a memorable start to their 2009-10 season. Kutztown has roared to an impressive 11-1 start and it has won 10 consecutive meets. Considering the Golden Bears flew halfway across the continent to swim in Alaska and back to sweep a dual meet the following week, the good start is pretty impressive.

“We were nervous coming into the year of how we would do, but everybody it seems like is swimming their personal bests,” Wolkom said. “We’re surprising ourselves. I believe we are swimming so much faster than last year and our times should keep dropping.”

Flannery knows his team will be challenged in two weeks at the Franklin & Marshall Invitational. The 800-free relay quartet is nine seconds off the school record, which for the third weekend in November gives them a shot to claim the mark.

“They are within striking distance,” Flannery said. “I am really excited to see how they do as we continue to go forward. The team’s confidence is very high because we’ve been having a lot of success early. It’s still early but this is a good place for the team to be at this point in the season.”

The Golden Bear Invitational continues Saturday morning at 10 a.m. with preliminary round action and concludes at 4 p.m. with another set of finals.

NOTES: Stevens Tech’s John Hu set a pair of meet records in the 200 individual medley and 200-yard butterfly. Hu’s effort in the 200-yard butterfly was also a pool record, which broke a mark that stood for 22 years. On the women’s side, Stevens Tech’s Sian Pearson also set a meet record in the 200-yard butterfly record was a meet record. 

--KU--