Bucknell University Athletics
Emma Levendoski Invited to NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships
3/4/2015 12:35:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Bucknell junior Emma Levendoski (Mandeville, La./Mandeville) will go down as the first Bison female to compete at the NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships. The six-time Patriot League champion learned Wednesday that she was selected for the event and will swim the backstroke events.
Levendoski, who owns the school record in both backstrokes, was selected based on her 200 back credentials, but will also have the opportunity to swim the 100. She is the first Bucknell swimmer – male or female – to earn an NCAA bid since Hall of Famer Jim Harvey in 1988.
The NCAA Championships will be held March 19-21 at Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina. The 100 back will take place March 20, while the 200 back is scheduled for March 21.
The first swimmer in Patriot League history to sweep the backstroke events three consecutive years, Levendoski ranks fourth on the Bison all-time list for conference championships with six. She owns the 100 back school record (53.53) by more than one second over second-place Courtney Warren and the 200 back standard (1:54.48) by nearly four seconds over teammate Ashley Henderson. Both school records were established at last November's Bucknell Invitational.
In addition to owning the Bison backstroke records, Levendoski holds the Patriot League records. She also posted the ECAC Championships meet record in the 200 back this past weekend as she became the first Bucknell swimmer to win the event at ECACs since 1997.
Levendoski has excelled in the backstroke since arriving at Bucknell three years ago. The three-time First Team All-Patriot League selection and 2013 Patriot League Rookie of the Meet has finished in first place 61 times in 78 career backstroke races.
While Levendoski is the first Bison to qualify for the NCAA Division I Championships, the Bucknell women's swimming and diving program had a sustained string of excellence at AIAW national championship meets throughout the 1970s and early 1980s where its student-athletes combined to earn 30 All-America citations.
Players Mentioned
