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Full Results
York, PA – The Messiah College women's swimming team earned a total of nine gold medals and collected a total of 38 All-MAC honors, winning their fourth-straight MAC Championship. They finished with a total of 619 points, their closest competitor was Widener University who came in second with 595.5 points.
This great showing at championships also helped Messiah earn the Swimmer of the Year Award as
Kaitlin Wingert was awarded the honor, and rightfully so. This is the second-straight year a Falcon has garnered this award as Wingert swept all of her individual events, the 200 IM, 100 Free, and 200 Free. She also earned gold medals in the 800 Free Relay, 400 Medley Relay, and 200 Free Relay along with her teammates.
This fourth-straight championship is particularly bittersweet for head coach
Nancy Luley as she is retiring. Luley started the men's and women's swimming programs at Messiah, who had their inaugural season in the 2008-09 year. She had this to say about her time as head coach:
"It's been a privilege and a pleasure to work with these amazing student-athletes. I considerate it an honor to be a part of their lives, and will miss each and every one of them."
Sunday, Feb. 12
The final day of competition started with
Emily Reale who finished third in the 1650 Free with a time of 17:58.70. This time was a season best for her and it she earned First Team All-MAC honors with the third-place finish.
Kaitlin Wingert continued her dominance at the MAC Championships, she is certainly a force to be reckoned with in the water. She defended her title in the 100 Free in recording breaking time of 51.36. That time broke the Messiah program record, MAC record, and most importantly was good enough for a NCAA B-cut. Wingert earned her fifth gold medal and fifth First Team All-MAC honor with the win.
Tara Freeman was the other Falcon in the 200 Free final and she finished in third place with a season best time of 53.70, earning First Team All-MAC honors as well.
In the finals of the 200 Breaststroke,
Sarah Woods put forth a good performance finishing fifth with a season best time of 2:33.70 and also earned Second Team All-MAC honors.
Cassie Cotton and
Leah Williamson both competed in the finals of the 200 Butterfly and finished fourth and sixth respectively, earning All-MAC honors in the process.
The most exciting event of the night proved to be the 400 Free Relay where the Falcons were looking to defend their title. The team of
Tara Freeman,
Emily Reale,
Brittany Pond, and
Kaitlin Wingert took to the water but were narrowly defeated by Widener University. Messiah finished with a season-low record time of 3:33.83 and earned First Team All-MAC honors with the second-place finish.
Saturday, Feb. 11
The Messiah women's swim team added more medals to their total and still hold a lead over Widener University 434-399 heading into the final day of MAC Championships. Today was highlighted by three gold medal finishes in the 200 Free Relay, 100 Butterfly, and 200 Freestyle, and five First Team All-MAC honors were collected as well.
In the first event of the evening, the Falcons were looking to defend their title in the 200 Free Relay, and they did just that winning gold for the second-straight year and setting a new Messiah program record with a time of 1:36.92.
Cassie Cotton and
Emily Reale started things off strong in the first two legs but it was
Tara Freeman who helped pull the team away from their competitors swimming a 23.86 in the third leg. Wingert then finished it off swimming a 23.65 in the final leg. As mentioned the time set a new program record, season record, and earned the team First Team All-MAC honors.
Messiah was stacked in the next event as three Falcons advanced to the 400 IM finals.
Emily Reale led the way finishing in third place behind King's Kristen Siwy and Arcadia's Megan Obarowski who finished first and second respectively. Reale's time of 4:42.53 was a season best and earned her First Team All-MAC honors.
Britta Heath finished not far behind in fourth place earning Second Team All-MAC honors with a finish time of 4:48.06.
Molly Martin earned Honorable Mention All-MAC coming in seventh with a time of 4:55.32.
Looking to defend her title in the 200 Freestyle,
Kaitlin Wingert was up to the challenge dominating her competitors. She flew off the dock swimming a 25.45 in her first leg and didn't look back winning this event for the second-straight year. Wingert's time of 1:53.20, not only broke a Messiah program record, but a MAC record, one, which she set last year at championships. This gold medal win also earned her First Team All-MAC honors.
Brittany Pond finished this event in sixth place with a time of 1:59.83 earning Second Team All-MAC honors.
The 100 Butterfly saw
Cassie Cotton break a program record en route to a first-place finish after coming in second last year. Her time of 57.43 was .02 seconds faster than the record she set earlier today in preliminaries. She earned First Team All-MAC honors with the win.
Tara Freeman swam well earning Second Team All-MAC honors coming in fourth place with a time of 58.96.
Leah Williamson rounded this event out with a sixth place finish, earning Second Team All-MAC honors with a time of 59.49.
Joelle Williamson put forth a strong performance in the 100 Backstroke earning First Team All-MAC honors for the second-straight year. She finished in third place with a season best time of 1:00.18.
Preliminaries start again tomorrow morning before the final evening of finals begins at 6:00 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 10
The Messiah women's swim team pushed their medal total to six, finishing first in three events and second in one, all while collecting five First Team All-MAC honors to highlight day two of the MAC Championships. Three program records were also broken in the 400 Medley Relay, 200 IM, and 50 Freestyle. The Falcons are currently first place with a total of 223 points leading Widener University who has 200 points and have earned five gold medals and one silver.
The evening began with the 400 Medley Relay where Messiah was looking to defend their title, and they did just that. Finishing with a time of 3:57.83, the Falcons won gold for the second-straight year and broke a program record.
Joelle Williamson and
Emily Reale had strong performances in the first two spots, but it was
Cassie Cotton's time of 56.79 that caught and passed Stevenson's
Izzy Ramsland to give Messiah the lead.
Kaitlin Wingert finished it off from there, swimming the fastest in the freestyle with a time of 51.49.
As mentioned, that time broke the Messiah record of 3:57.91, a record set by the same team of Falcons last season and earned the team First Team All-MAC honors.
The women's second event of the night, the 500 Free, saw
Emily Reale finishing in second place, falling to Megan Hupp of Arcadia. Reale swam a 5:15.16, her best time of the season, and earned a First Team All-MAC honor with the second-place finish. After qualifying for the finals by just .11 seconds,
Britta Heath swam a 5:23.16, also her best of the season, coming in eighth place and earning Honorable Mention All-MAC honors.
Kaitlin Wingert defended her 200 IM title, winning gold for the third-straight year, in exciting fashion blowing the previous program record time of 2:10.36, which she set at MAC Championships last season, out of the water with a finish time of 2:07.90. Even as Stevenson's Melanie Milam made a last minute run, Wingert pressed on swimming a 29.48 in the final leg.
After setting a new program record in the 50 Freestyle preliminaries,
Cassie Cotton looked in fine form for the finals winning gold and again setting a new program record. Earlier today she swam a 24.10 but this evenings finish time of 23.95, narrowly edging Widener's Christine Kunzler, who swam a 24.08, highlighted a gold medal win and First Team All-MAC honor.
Tara Freeman, last year's first-place winner in this event, earned a First Team All-MAC honor finishing in third place with a time of 24.22, tying her career best record in this event.
Preliminaries start again tomorrow morning before the third evening of finals begins at 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 9
When you win three-straight conference titles, it's hard to do anything that can defined as "stunning." But Messiah women's swimming did just that on day one at the MAC Championships as they came from behind in both the 200 Medley and 800 Freestyle Relays to win gold. The Falcons not only came out on top in two thrilling finishes, they also set both program records and MAC Championship records in the process.
Even as the 200 Medley was settled by less than a three-quarters of a second, the 800 Freestyle proved to be the evening's best moment. The Falcons were trailing by 1.39 seconds to Arcadia and 0.99 seconds to Widener at the midway point, even as
Cassie Cotton and
Tara Freeman had solid showings in the first two spots. In the third leg
Emily Reale's time of 1:57.17 caught and passed Arcadia's Bailey Babarsky, but Widener's Jill Bujanowski swam a 1.56.03 that vaulted the Pride into the lead by 2.13 seconds. The lead was no doubt imposing, but Messiah's
Kaitlin Wingert flat out dominated as closer with a time of 1:51.93 across her 200 yards. With just over a length to swim, Wingert's steady and impressive strokes finally went in front of Widener's Christine Kunzler and the Falcons finished with a win by just 0.26 seconds.
As mentioned, that time broke both the Messiah record and also the MAC Championship record; Widener's time of 7:45.64 also broke the MAC record -- a time of 7:45.99 set last season by the same foursome of Falcons -- but this year's Falcons managed grab the victory once again.
Of course, the evening for the women was set in the right direction by a gold medal in the 200 Medley Relay. The Falcons' first two swimmers,
Joelle Williamson and
Megan Freeman, combined for a time of 58.93 over the first two legs, but that time had Messiah fourth to Arcadia (57.77), Stevenson (57.95), and Misericordia (58.72).
Cassie Cotton's 25.19 vaulted the Falcons into first place by 0.10 seconds, and
Tara Freeman's impressive freestyle time of 23.83 closed out the Falcons' win.
Follow below to see All-MAC First and Second Team Honors and Messiah records at the 2017 MAC Championships!
Notes:
1st - 3rd place is First Team All-MAC; 4th - 6th place is Second Team All-MAC; 7th - 8th place is Honorable Mention.
A second "X" under Messiah record column indicates MAC Championships Record.
| Event No. |
Event Name |
Swimmer(s) |
Time (Place) |
First
Team |
Second
Team |
Season Record |
Messiah Record |
| 1 |
200 Medley Relay |
Joelle Williamson, Megan Freeman, Cassie Cotton, Tara Freeman |
1:47.95 (1) |
X |
- |
X |
XX |
| 3 |
800 Freestyle Relay |
Cassie Cotton, Tara Freeman, Emily Reale, Kaitlin Wingert |
7:45.38 (1) |
X |
- |
X |
XX |
| 5 |
400 Medley Relay |
Joelle Williamson, Emily Reale, Cassie Cotton, Kaitlin Wingert |
3:57.83 (1) |
X |
- |
X |
X |
| 7 |
500 Freestyle |
Emily Reale |
5:15.16 (2) |
X |
- |
X |
- |
| 9 |
200 IM |
Kaitlin Wingert |
2:07.90 (1) |
X |
- |
X |
X |
| 11 |
50 Freestyle |
Cassie Cotton
Tara Freeman |
23.95 (1)
24.22 (3) |
X
X |
-
- |
X
- |
X
- |
| 13 |
200 Free Relay |
Cassie Cotton, Emily Reale, Tara Freeman, Kaitlin Wingert |
1:36.92 (1) |
X |
- |
X |
- |
| 15 |
400 IM |
Emily Reale
Britta Heath |
4:42.53 (3)
4:48.03 (4) |
X
- |
-
X |
X
X |
-
- |
| 17 |
100 Butterfly |
Cassie Cotton
Tara Freeman
Leah Williamson |
57.43 (1)
58.96 (4)
59.49 (6) |
X
-
- |
-
X
X |
X
X
X |
X
-
- |
| 19 |
200 Freestyle |
Kaitlin Wingert
Brittany Pond |
1:53.20 (1)
1:59.83 (6) |
X
- |
X |
X
X |
XX
- |
| 23 |
100 Backstroke |
Joelle Williamson |
1:00.18 (3) |
X |
- |
X |
- |
| 25 |
1650 Freestyle |
Emily Reale |
17:58.70 (3) |
X |
- |
X |
- |
| 29 |
100 Freestyle |
Kaitlin Wingert
Tara Freeman |
51.36 (1)
52.96 (3) |
X
X |
-
- |
X
X |
XX
- |
| 31 |
200 Breaststroke |
Sarah Woods |
2:33.70 (5) |
- |
X |
X |
- |
| 33 |
200 Butterfly |
Cassie Cotton
Leah Williamson |
2:13.51(4)
2:15.26 (6) |
X
- |
-
X |
-
X |
-
- |
| 35 |
400 Free Relay |
Tara Freeman, Emily Reale, Brittany Pond, Kaitlin Wingert |
3:33.83 (2) |
X |
- |
X |
- |
