KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University women's swimming team will host LIU Post and Millersville University on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 1 p.m. for its final competition this season at Keystone Pool, a tri-meet which will include Senior Day festivities.
KU has won each of its meets this season in its home waters, defeating Juniata on Nov. 11, 2017, 96-51, and besting Lock Haven on Dec. 2, 2017, 143-92. Beginning with the victory over Juniata, the Golden Bears have been riding a wave of momentum, winning their last four meets and qualifying 11 different swimmers for the postseason in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), their most qualifiers since the 2012-13 season.
As a team, KU sits at 5-3 overall and has the opportunity to make some history on Saturday if it can get a victory in either of the two matchups. Six or more wins would be the most for the program since 2011 and, with a sweep of LIU Post and Millersville, it could secure its first undefeated home season since the 2009-10 season.
Both LIU Post (5-1) and Millersville (3-3) will provide fierce competition for KU in what has traditionally been a tightly-contested matchup between these three sides. Last year's meet was no different as LIU Post won by just 11 points over KU and Millersville clipped Kutztown by a slim margin of two points. MU has won its last two meets with the Golden Bears, but by just 12 combined points, winning by ten during the 2015-16 season. Kutztown claimed the victory in 2014-15, but again in a very close meet, winning by a total of 16 points.
Of the 11 Maroon and Gold swimmers, all of them have secured a spot in the PSAC Championships in at least two events with
Claire Frank (Macungie, Pa./Emmaus) and
Lindsay Brenneman (Dover, Pa./Dover Area) leading the charge, with five PSAC marks each. Frank, a junior, has posted PSAC qualifying times in the 50-free, 100-back, 200-back, 200 IM and 400 IM, returning to the PSAC Championships for the third consecutive season. Brenneman has made a splash in her freshman campaign with freestyle as her primary stroke, qualifying for the postseason in the 200-free, 500-free, 1000-free, 1650-free and the 200-IM. In total, the current postseason qualifying group is comprised of three freshmen, three juniors and five seniors, a testament to the depth of this team.
Focusing on this weekend's Senior Day, the Maroon and Gold will be honoring the careers of its ten seniors;
Madi Bleiler (Dillsburg, Pa./Northern),
Alexis Cable (Thomasville, Pa./Spring Grove (Mansfield)),
Meredith Heydt (Allentown, Pa./Salisbury (Lehigh Carbon CC)),
Kara Jones (Greencastle, Pa./James Buchanan),
Gab Louden (Crum Lynne, Pa./Ridley),
Bridget Perdoch (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury),
Rachael Pietropolo (Claymont, Del./Concord),
Suzanne Selman (Coopersburg, Pa./Southern Lehigh) and
Stephanie Dean (Cinnaminson, N.J./Cinnaminson). This group has collected many accolades during its tenure at Kutztown, boasting a combined 15 PSAC Championship appearances, 13 2018 PSAC qualifying marks, 7 all-time top-10 marks, 13 Dean's List honors and 8 PSAC Scholar-Athlete selections.
Bleiler will return to the PSAC Championships for the fourth-straight season, qualifying in the same three events, the 50-free, 100-back and 200-back, in each of her four years donning the Maroon and Gold. Jones has also secured her fourth consecutive PSAC qualification, posting PSAC marks in the 100-fly and 200-fly for the fourth straight year, but also adding the 500-free to her postseason repertoire as a senior.
Louden, like Jones, heads back to the postseason for the third year in-a-row in both the 500-free and 1650-free, but has diversified her championship schedule, qualifying in the 100-breast for the first time in her career.
Perdoch will join Louden in the 100-breast, advancing to the postseason for the fourth consecutive time in this event, and has also done the same in qualifying for the 200-breast event. Rounding out the senior group which has punched its postseason ticket thus far, Selman will swim the same schedule as Perdoch, with both having qualified in the 100-breast and 200-breast.
Following Saturday's meet, Kutztown has one remaining competition, the ESU Invitational at East Stroudsburg on Feb. 3, before heading to the PSAC Championships in York, Feb. 21-24.
