The Raiders swim teams traveled to Clarion University Friday, just falling short to the Golden Eagles in both men’s and women’s competitions.

The men’s team’s youth shined through, as freshman Jeff Beyer and sophomore Shane Kaliszewski both took home individual victories.

Kaliszewski slipped into Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) contention in the 100-yard butterfly with a meet-best time of 54.60 seconds. Nick Bloom also placed third in the event.

In his first season, Jeff Beyer has qualified for a plethora of PSAC events, and his success continued this weekend. Beyer’s first-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle landed him another PSAC spot to compete against some of the best swimmers in the state.

Although the men’s team has fallen to 1–3 on the season, the team managed to register four different swimmers for PSAC qualifiers in nine different events. SU’s Kristian Voulopos qualified for three events on the night with three second-place finishes.

The men’s loss to Clarion will force the team to regroup before its biggest meet of the year, the Patriot Invitational.

The women fared better, but came up just shy, dropping to 3–3 on the season. The Raiders have been edged out during its past two meets, as its last two losses combined have come by a total of 12 points.

SU’s meet was headlined by sophomore Stephanie O’Toole’s impressive meet, where she broke Rikki Sargent’s Shippensburg school record in the 400-yard individual medley by two seconds with a time of 4:30.39.

In just her first season with SU, O’Toole has already set school records in the 400-yard medley, the 100-yard backstroke and ranks in the top 10 in five other events. Her times in the 400-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke also qualified as NCAA ‘B’ cuts.

Shippensburg’s meet kicked off with a victory in the 200-yard medley relay, as Carly Alvarado, Nicole Martorella, Sidney Owens and O’Toole collaborated to out-raced Clarion with a time of 1:51.06.

MacKenna Angert also had a strong meet, qualifying for PSACs in the 500 and 200-yard freestyle. Angert’s time of 2:01.65 in the 200 was a meet best.

Sidney Owens’ performance was perhaps the best of her Shippensburg career, winning two events and achieving PSAC qualifiers in three events total.

Junior Erin Fife had a pair of PSAC qualifiers, too, winning the 200-yard butterfly and placing second in the 100-yard freestyle.

In total, the women posted 16 PSAC qualifying times on the night with seven different swimmers getting the call.

Both the men’s and women’s squads have a weekend to prepare for the biggest meet of the year thus far, when the teams hit the road for the Patriot Invitational. The meet is held in Fairfax, Virginia, and is set to begin at 10:00 a.m.

Share