Bloomsburg Swimmers Preparing for PSAC Championships

BLOOMSBURG-The Bloomsburg University men's and women's swim teams will be competing in the 2009-10 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) championships Thursday through Sunday at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg. Action will begin with the men's and women's 1000-free on Thursday and conclude on Sunday evening.

Both the women's and men's team have qualified the maximum18 swimmers for the championships, the first time both squads have done that in many years. The women's team will be looking to improve upon last year's 10th place finish, while the men were fifth last season and will be looking to move up.

"We have had a very successful season thus far with some very good in-season performances," said head coach Stu Marvin. "Going into the post-season we are ready to make a move towards the top of the conference."

Leading the way for the women is freshman Madeline Barlow (Yardley/Pennsbury) who is seeded first in the 200-IM, third in the 200-back and sixth in the 100-fly and Brittany McNeil (Oxford/Oxford Area) who is ranked second in 200-breast and seventh in 100-breast.

Others who have a chance to medal include are Miranda Steele (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) in the 1000- and 1650 free events; Sarah Grawe (Stafford, VA/North Stafford) in the 100-back; Allie Reed (Selinsgrove/Selinsgrove), a former All-American, who should do well in the 50-, 100- and 200-free events, and Julia DeVincent (Maple Grove/Upper Dublin) in the 200-free.

"The women finished 10th last year, but we are a top five team this year," said Marvin, a former All-American swimmer with the Huskies. "With the addition of freshman like Barlow and Bridget Hilferty (Royersford/Upper Perkiomen), along with the return of fifth- year senior Allie Reed, we are a completely different team. McNeil has had a career year so far and we look for her to really contribute toward the team effort of climbing back into the top five."

Leading the men's team are Juan Castaneda (Shamokin/Shamokin Area) and John King (Ridley Park/Ridley). Castaneda is ranked second in the 100-fly and 11th in the 200-fly, while King is ranked fourth in both the 1000- and 1650-free events.

Others to watch out for on the men's side include Ben Safran (Doylestown/Central Bucks West) in the 200-fly; Jeremy Frey (Pipersville/Central Bucks East) in the 200-back and 200-IM; Derek Straub (Sinking Spring/Wilson) in the 100-back; and Kyle Wiesenbach (Lincoln University/Avon Grove) in the 400IM, an event he has reached the finals in each of the last two seasons.

"The men finished fifth last year after finishing last the previous two years," said Marvin. "We think we have a very good opportunity to move up to fourth and maybe challenge for the third spot. Our relays should be stronger than last year which means more points as the totals are doubled in those events."

"The team has really looked great during the past two weeks," Marvin stated. "Our tapering phase in preparation for this weekend seems to be working really well. We chose not to fully rest everyone back in December for the Akron Invitational, so for many of them it is the first fully-rested meet of the season. That should make for some very fast times."

"Our goal is to get as many swimmers as possible into finals every night," the second-year coach said. "The fastest 16 swimmers advance from the preliminary rounds each morning. Anyone making it into finals will be scoring critical points for us. Of course the ultimate goal of any swimmer is to make it into the top eight at night, or the championship final and we have many poised to make it this year."

PSAC Qualifiers