Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Swimming & Diving Squads Prepare for 2001-02 Campaign
10/24/2001 8:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Oct. 24, 2001
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Last season saw the Bucknell Aquatics program return to its rightful spot as a force in the Patriot League. Head Coach Jerry Foley and his staff believe that the 2001-02 campaign has the potential to have a shot at winning the league crown.
The women's team this season will be led through the trials of the season by senior co-captains Barbara Morgan and Abby Weaver. Both of these individuals will lead the Orange and Blue on and off the pool deck. Morgan has spent the past three seasons refining her breast stroke to a point where she could compete with the best in the conference. Weaver came onto the scene with a splash as a freshman and has not faltered since her arrival, culminating last season with her selection as the Patriot League Scholar-Athlete, an honor bestowed for her performance in the pool and in the classroom.
The lone seniors on the women's side, Morgan and Weaver represent a combined five top-ten performances and 11 relay top-tens. Morgan sits atop the Bucknell record books with the all-time best time in the 200-yard breaststroke, while Weaver is a member of the all-time best 800-yard freestyle relay team at BU.
Representing the junior class for the women's team will be a group of six swimmers with a tremendous amount of experience. Becky Dolan, Stephanie Erickson, Darby Golino, Lauren Mosler, Stephanie Nickse and Alyson Steckbeck all enter their third year with the Orange and Blue swimming and diving program.
Dolan is among the Bucknell all-time top-ten in three individual categories (4th in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard free, 7th in the 1650-yard free), and a member of seven top-ten relay teams, including the first four spots on the all-time 800-yard freestyle relay teams. Golino will look to build on an impressive sophomore campaign in which she captured two bronze medals at the Patriot League Championships, earning All-Patriot League honors for the second-straight year.
Mosler, Nickse and Steckbeck are all expected to continue to perform the way they have the past two years. Mosler, already present in four top-ten individual events on the all-time lists, moved into third place on the 200-yard breaststroke list with 2:28.42 at the conference championship. Nickse put her name on a fourth all-time individual top-ten list with a 1:00.94 at the PL Championships in the 100-yard butterfly, and Steckbeck joined Bucknell's elite with a 1:01.44 in the 100-yard backstroke, good enough for 10th place on the all-time list.
The sophomore class is comprised of nine swimmers and one diver. Lynne Ashenfelter, Daniela Faas, Meghan Freese, Andrea Kern, Meredith Miller, Krisztina Poda, Monica Smith, Anna Sommers and Julia Walsh represent BU as swimmers, while Sarah Petcavage competes on the board.
The rookie class of a year ago contributed with several stellar performances, most notably Faas' school record-setting performance in the 500-yard freestyle at the Patriot League Championships. The time earned her second-place at the championship event, but put her at the top of the Bucknell all-time list by nearly five seconds.
With 15 individual top-ten performances and 10 relay top-ten's among them, the sophomore class is sure to impress for another season.
The Bison women's squad welcomes an extremely talented freshman class and two transfer students, including representatives of seven different states and one other country. Ashley Aiken, Margaret Blitzer, Jamie Flick, Jackie Feinthel, Robin Gibson, Lauren Kmec, Jaclyn Piposar, Tricia Rado, Leslie Rice, Allison Robl, Bernadette Schmidinger, Laurie Seeley and Jessica Hansley comprise the class of 2005, while Jennifer Cancro and Jill Nonemaker enter the program as sophomores.
With a solid nucleus returning and a talent laden incoming class, the Orange and Blue women's squad will undoubtedly be a fierce competitor in 2001-02.
The 2001-02 men's swimming and diving team will be led by co-captains Chris Feinthel and Chris Neary. Feinthel, a junior in 2001-02, broke into the top-ten in the 200-yard backstroke at home against Lehigh in late January and proceeded to set a personal best in the event at the Patriot League Championships, moving him into seventh place on the Bucknell all-time list.
Teammate Neary enters his final season with the Orange and Blue following a breakthrough junior year. Already an established swimmer among Patriot League foes, Neary will be counted on to follow up his stellar performance at last season's Patriot League Championships, in which he narrowly missed being named the Male Swimmer of the Meet. Of the four individual top-ten lists Neary has broken into, he is in the top three in three of those.
Feinthel leads a group of veteran juniors into the new millennium. Swimmers Gonzalo Diaz, Michael Guskey, Geoffrey Konopka, Kurt McCoy, Stelios Saffos, Stephen Schwanhausser and Adam Yerkes, and diver Adam Fackler all return for their junior campaign. Several of the members of the junior class used their sophomore season as a springboard into the future and will be counted on to maintain the high level of performance set last season. A notable example is Schwanhausser's school record-setting swim in the 200-yard breaststroke at the Patriot League Championships.
Coming off of their first official season at the collegiate level, the men's swimming and diving team welcomes back six seasoned sophomores to the fold. Peter Garvin, Matt Hallowell, Michael Harrigan, Adam Puff, Jack Sheehan and Michael Willats represent the sophomore class this season. Garvin, Hallowell and Sheehan each enjoyed especially successful rookie campaigns, finding themselves on the BU top-ten all-time lists a combined nine different times, and will be looked to for guidance and leadership for the incoming freshmen.
The class of 2005 consists of four swimmers and two divers from five different states. Tom Bitting, Steven Evans, Sean Freeman, John Hoffman, Andrew Steiner and Jake Thieman comprise the freshmen class for the 2001-02 season. Bitting, Hoffman, Steiner and Thieman are all freestylers, while Hoffman will compete in the IM and butterfly and Steiner will also compete in the IM and breaststroke. Evans and Freeman enter the program as two of only three male divers on the roster.
The Orange and Blue open the season with the annual Blue vs. Orange scrimmage, before going right to it against Patriot League rival Army in late October. On the home slate, the Bison will host Drexel in early November, and bring in league foes Lafayette and Colgate in January to gear up for the Patriot League Championships at Navy in February.
