Swim Teams Have Good First Day at Zippy Invitational

AKRON, OH--The Bloomsburg University men's and women's swim teams are swimming this weekend at the Zippy Invitational at the University of Akron in Ohio.

"This is a meet that features a lot of Division I competition and our teams are swimming great times," said coach Stu Marvin. "We had a lot of career bests and some PSAC-qualifying times."

On the men's side Derek Straub (Sinking Spring/Wilson) swam a career-best and PSAC-qualifying time of 22.09 in the 50-free, while in the 100-backstrokre he had a career-best time of 54.04. Mike Bierds (Malvern/West Chester) swam a career-best and PSAC-qualifying time of 22.58 in the 50-free with Steve Withers (Doylestown/Central Bucks West) swimming a PSAC-qualifying time of 4:55.32 in the 500-free. In addition, John King (Ridley Park/Ridley) took five seconds off his previous best in the 500-free finishing in 4:44.80. In the 50-free David Mancinelli (Plymouth Meeting/Westmont Hilltop) Ryan Lightner (Lebanon/Cedar Crest), Bierds and Anthony Sirico (Milford/Delaware Valley) swam career-bests with Mancinelli finishing in 21.87, Lightner in 21.96 and Sirico in 23.21, while Beards time of 22.58 was also a PSAC-qualifying time. In the 100-butterfly Juan Castaneda (Shamokin/Shamokin) swam a career-best of 50.90. In the 200-IM, Tyler DeLorenzo (State College/State College) had a career-best time of 2:01.21.

For the women, Sara Hippeli (Quakertown/Quakertown) swam a career-best time of 5:13.06 in the 500 free, while Brittany McNeil (Oxford/Oxford Area) had a career-best in the 200-IM finishing in 2:14.85.In the 50-free Nicole Chinnici (Vineland, NJ/Vineland) and Stacey Henry (Bessemer/Kennedy Catholic) both swam personal-bests in the 50-free with Chinnici's time also qualifying her for the PSAC championships.