The swimming and diving team competed in the Patriot League Championships at Bucknell University last weekend, breaking 17 school records in four days of competition, all in swimming. The men’s team placed seventh and the women’s placed ninth out of 10 teams.
The closest the Leopards saw to the podium was a strong performance from senior Shaylee Daniels, who placed fourth in the 1-meter dive with a score of 251.10.
Daniels said that she has been reflecting on her freshman year when she didn’t make it to the final round in her first Patriot League Championship.
“I just never thought that I would ever get to this point,” she said. “I just felt really lucky to be surrounded by so many excellent other divers from some of the other schools and my own teammates.”
The Maroon and White broke 11 individual and six relay records overall. Senior Kurtis Campbell led the charge with four individual records set in the 500-yard free, 400-yard IM, 200-yard fly and 200-yard free.
“I think we were all just feeling really excited to get there and compete,” he said. “The entire season is just working up towards the championship.”
Campbell said that the 200-yard free was his last-ever race, calling it a “bittersweet moment.”
“Definitely went out with a bang,” he said. “That’s a good way to go out.”
Campbell said that the men’s team focused on trying to beat rival Lehigh University. However, a disqualified 200-yard medley relay on day one put the Leopards at an early disadvantage. The Leopards ended up 57 points off of the sixth-place Mountain Hawks.
Kurtis was also part of the relay team with seniors Peter Kawash and Avery LeTourneau and junior Tommy Weber that broke the school 800-yard freestyle relay record. Kawash also broke the 200-yard IM and 100-yard backstroke records with times of 1:48.77 and 48.74, respectively.
“We strive to break pretty much as many of them as we can every Patriots,” Kawash said about relay records.
Women’s swimming edged out Holy Cross by eight points for ninth. Senior Maggie Ivie took home school records in the individual 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke. She was also part of the Lafayette record-breaking relays for the 800-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley.
“I think I did enjoy myself the most at this meet more than any other meet I’ve been to in college,” Ivie said.
Junior Isabella Van Ess also broke the 100-yard breaststroke school record with a time of 1:04.64 in the preliminary round.
Despite the women’s team landing second-to-last, Ivie said that the Leopards were “super excited” about their placement, having entered Patriot League Championships with the expectation of last place.
“Once we started pulling ahead of Holy Cross, it was super exciting for us, and motivated us to keep pushing harder and doing better,” she said.
The season is not over for the diving team: Daniels and sophomore Landon Orth qualified for the NCAA Division I Zone A Diving Regionals in Piscataway, New Jersey, which will take place during the third week of March.
“There’s a lot of really good athletes who are going to be there,” Daniels said. “It’s going to be really cool to see everyone dive, let alone compete with them.”
