Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Patriot League Championships
Bucknell Women's Swimming and Diving Wins Fourth-Straight Patriot League Title
2/26/2006 7:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Feb. 25, 2006
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - With 744.5 points, the Bucknell women's swimming and diving team captured its fourth-straight Patriot League Championship on Saturday in Navy's Lejeune Hall. The meet came down to the wire as the Bison took the title by the narrowest margin in League history with Colgate finishing second with 731 points, just 13.5 points behind the total posted by the Orange and Blue.
In the 200 back, senior Lectie Altman (Syracuse, N.Y./William Nottingham) won her third individual championship with a NCAA "B" qualifying time of 2:00.87 and Laura Goeller (Wilmington, Del./Tower Hill School) finished fourth with a time of 2:06.71.
Junior Katherine Munson (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield) was the Bison's other gold medal winner as she set a new Bucknell record, swimming to a first-place finish the 200 fly in 2:04.54. Sophomore Brittany Neligan (Hempstead, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) also posted a new program top-10 mark in the event, finishing 12th with a time of 2:10.52, good for 10th in Bison history.
Junior Rebecca Scheffter (Mt. Airy, Md./Linganore) earned a silver medal in the 100 free with a time of 51.61 after improving her personal-best in the event, which ranks third in the Bucknell record books, to 51.26 in the preliminaries.
The Bison scored 75 points in the 1650 free, sweeping second-through-sixth place. Sophomore Meghan Brown (Lewisburg, Pa./Lewisburg Area) was the top finisher for Bucknell in the event in second with a time of 17:18.61, the fourth-best time in program history, sophomore Brittany Neligan (Hempstead, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) followed in third with the fifth-fastest time in the Bison record books (17:24.25) and junior Carlyn Donley (Pittsburgh, Pa./Oakland Catholic) was fourth with a time of 17:27.89. Sophomore Katalin Lyons (Flemington, N.J./Hunterdon Central Regional) placed fifth in 17:33.29, improving her personal-best time, which is ninth on the school's top-10 all-time list, and freshman Ally St. Claire (Silver Spring, Md./Edmund Burke) rounded out the group in sixth with a time of 17:40.83.
In the 200 breast, junior Nikki Woodward (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) finished fifth with the second-best time in program history, 2:23.86. Sophomore Emily Wichryk (Darlington, Pa./Blackhawk) took sixth (2:25.05) in the event after qualifying out of the preliminaries with a time of 2:24.72, which ranks third in the Bucknell record books. Freshman Nikki Seaman (Cleveland, Ohio/The Hawken School) won the "B" final to finish ninth overall with the No. 5 mark on the Bison all-time top-10, 2:27.35.
The 400 free relay team of Altman, freshman Alexandra Lovallo (Ridgefield, Conn./Ridgefield), senior Mary Krakowski (Erie, Pa./McDowell) and Scheffter captured bronze with a time of 3:32.51, good for fifth on Bucknell's all-time list.
Sophomore Lauren Thomas was the lone Bison diver to qualify for the finals in the one-meter competition and scored 217.85 points to place fourth.
Women - Final Team Rankings1. BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY 744.5 2. Colgate University 731 3. Naval Academy 516.5 4. Lafayette Swimming 426.5 5. United States Military Academy 389.5 6. American University 279 7. Lehigh University 242 8. College of the Holy Cross 132
