Women’s Swimming Finishes Second at 2022 MAC Championships
YORK, Pa. (February 13, 2022) – Sophomore Claire Hannan won the 200-yard backstroke in helping the Stevens Institute of Technology women's swimming team to second place Sunday on the final day of competition at the 2022 Middle Atlantic Conference Championships at the Graham Aquatic Center.
Entering with a preliminary time of 2:10.22, which ranked second, the Mountainside, New Jersey native improved her time by 69-hundredths-of-a-second to top the field by a little more than a second. Hannan's result flipped the order from the morning's preliminary races.
Hannan's victory added 32 points to the Ducks' team total as Stevens amassed 1,138 points to finish second among the 13 competing schools. Messiah totaled 1,343.5 points to win its seventh title in eight years. Widener finished third with 997 points, with Misericordia (947.5) and Arcadia (734) rounding out the top-five. Lycoming's Katherine Brown was named the David B. Eavenson Award winner as the MAC's Swimmer of the Year. Widener first-year Mia Ruggiero was named Rookie of the Year and Messiah bench boss Katie McComb was named Coach of the Year to round out the individual honors.
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"I cannot express how proud I am of both of our teams," head coach Adam Schneider said. "This season certainly had some unique challenges thrown our way, but we always found a way to make the most of the hands we were dealt and make ourselves better because of them."
"Our seniors really set the tone and led by example," Schneider continued. "Almost our entire women's team had never been to an in-person MAC Championship and in a situation that could have been intimidating to such a young team, we found a way to battle nerves and perform at an extremely high level.
First-year Kai Wong was the Ducks' other individual medalist on the day, finishing third in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:10.93. Stevens wrapped up the meet by finishing third in the 400-yard freestyle relay, with the quartet of Wong, sophomore Keenan Yates, sophomore Gillian Reinhardt and senior Madie DeJong trimming 12 seconds off their seed time to finish in 3:40.11. Over the course of the four-day event, the Ducks totaled nine medals.
Additionally, first-year Olivia Shusta placed sixth in the 1650-freestyle relay with a time of 18:51.699. Yates won the 'B' final in the 100 Free with a time of 55.05 seconds, which was faster than half of the field in the 'A' final. First-years Sophie Patz and Melissa Misurelli finished right behind Wong in the 200 Breast as Stevens claimed four of the slots in the final.
The Ducks' quartet of sophomore Heather Maclachlan, Patz, Misurelli and sophomore Lauren Smith were the top 'B' relay group in the 400 Free Relay to round out the Ducks' top performances.
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