Byrne Named Bison of the Week After Winning Two Medals at the Patriot League Championships

Photo by: Carolyn Andros

Byrne Named Bison of the Week After Winning Two Medals at the Patriot League Championships

2/23/2026 1:52:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving

LEWISBURG, Pa. – Junior swimmer Kelly Byrne was named the Bison of the Week for the second time this season after a stellar performance at the 2026 Patriot League Championships in Annapolis, Maryland. Byrne won a golf medal in the 400 IM and took bronze in the 1650 freestyle while setting three new Bucknell top-10 times.

Byrne's gold medal swim came in the 400 IM as she swam a personal-best 4:16.24 that ranks second in Bucknell history. Byrne crushed her prelim time by nearly seven seconds. She won the event by 1.75 seconds, and became the second straight Bison to win gold in the event after Clara Renner won in 2025.

Byrne later took the bronze medal in the 1650 freestyle. She posted a time of 16:52.36 which now ranks eighth in program history. She knocked almost eight seconds off of her personal record which she sat at the Navy Invitational earlier this season.

The junior also swam in the 500 freestyle, where she set the fifth-fastest time in school history with a time of 4:51.87. Byrne knocked off almost four second off of her time in the preliminaries for a fourth-place finish in the A-Final. She was just over half-of-a-second off of another medal.

Bucknell's women took third at the Patriot League Championships for the second consecutive season. Bucknell is back in action at Kinney Natatorium for the ECAC Championships from Friday, February 27 through March 1.