Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Swimming and Diving Picks Up Three Patriot League Weekly Awards
1/23/2012 7:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Jan. 23, 2012
LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Bucknell swimming and diving program earned three of the Patriot League's four weekly honors on Monday. Sophomore Mike Nicholson (Chappaqua, N.Y./Horace Greeley) was named the Male Swimmer of the Week, junior Elizabeth Porcellio (Fairport, N.Y./Penfield) garnered Female Swimmer of the Week honors, and freshman Tori Molchany (Coplay, Pa./Parkland) was honored as the Female Diver of the Week. Both Bison squads swept a dual meet at Lehigh on Saturday.
Nicholson earned his third Swimmer of the Week honor this season after breaking two Jacobs Pool records in the 191-107 win against the Mountain Hawks. He finished first in both the 200-yard butterfly and the 200 individual medley, surpassing the pool record in each. His time of 1 minute, 52.81 seconds in the 200 IM broke a record that had stood for more than 20 years and was initially set by 1992 Olympian Ron Karnaugh.
Nicholson won his two races by a combined 11.00 seconds. He also posted a fourth-place finish in the 200 backstroke in his first race of the year in that event.
Porcellio was part of four of Bucknell's 11 victories during Saturday's 189-111 win at Lehigh. She captured first in the 100 fly, 200 IM and 200 free, in addition to swimming the anchor leg of the winning 400 free relay squad. Porcellio's three individual victories led the Bison. She posted a career-best time in the 100 fly (58.52) in her first time swimming the event this year.
Molchany etched her name into the Bucknell record books as she recorded two top-10 all-time dives, helping the Bison to a pair of 1-2-3 sweeps on the boards. Molchany posted her first victory of the year off the three-meter, scoring a 255.30, good for fifth in the program record books. That score was 25.57 better than her previous high score this year. Her one-meter score of 236.24 placed her second in that discipline and was good for eighth on the program's top-10 list.
Molchany combined with classmates Tara Boyle and Katie Hetherington to take the top three positions in both diving events. All three rookies rank in the top eight on Bucknell's top-10 lists off both boards, with three-time Patriot League Diver of the Week Hetherington holding the school record off both.
Both Bison squads will wrap up their regular season this Saturday, Jan. 28, with the Navy Invitational. The Patriot League Championships are just a few weeks later, also at Navy.
