Shippensburg men’s and women’s swimming teams opened their seasons with a dual meet against Kutztown at Keystone Natatorium on Wednesday, Sept. 24, after not being able to swim in their home pool for a week.

The team could not practice due to there being no one to inspect the campus facility pool, leaving the swim teams high and dry, and unable to practice. 

When asked what the team did for training, junior Michelle Kubiak and sophomore Kaitlyn Tannenhaus responded saying, “All we could do was lift weights. Some of the team went to the YMCA pool in Chambersburg.” 

The teams were able to return to their home pool on Tuesday, the day before the meet. 

Despite not being able to practice for a week, the men’s team displayed a strong showing, winning 10 of 13 events to defeat Kutztown by a 161-97 score. 

The women’s team fell by a score of 164.5 to 95.5, winning two events on the night.

On the men’s side, six of Shippensburg’s 10 victories were won by a Raider making their team debut. 

Graduate transfer Josh Wall secured three victories for the team, winning the 200-yard freestyle in 1:46.60, the 100-yard freestyle in 48.09 seconds and the 200-yard individual medley in 2:01.30. 

Wall’s times in the 200 and 100 freestyle were two of the team’s five performances on the night that satisfied the PSAC Championships qualifying standards.

First-year swimmers Mason Hockenberry and Joe Herman combined for three event victories. Hockenberry won the 100-yard butterfly in 54.04 seconds and the 50-yard butterfly in 24.14 seconds. Herman took the 50-yard backstroke in 25.84 seconds.

Sophomore Kiran George was the fastest in the 50-yeard breaststroke with a time of 27.69 seconds, and Junior Mason Koeth won the 100-yard backstroke in 55.65 seconds.

Wall and Koeth followed a 1-2 finish in the 200-yard freestyle while satisfying the PSAC cut. Juniors Robbie Ferlick and Connor Ludwig went 2-3 in the 50-yard freestyle with respective PSAC cuts of 21.44 seconds and 22.46 seconds.

The men also claimed victories in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard freestyle relay, with times of 1:37.02 and 1:28.76, respectively.

For the women’s team, sophomore Olivia Carver claimed gold in the 1,000-yard freestyle in a time of 11:11.13, and junior Charlee Shaw won the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 32.77 seconds.

Freshman Ella Nick met the PSAC qualifying standard in the 50-yard freestyle swimming a time of 25.33 seconds.

Carver placed second in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:03.82 and the 500-yard freestyle in 5:32.50. Sophomore Paige Bensinger was the runner-up to Shaw in the 50-yard breaststroke after swimming 33.07 seconds.

Senior Hannah Hudson swam 1:03.33 in the 100-yard backstroke, narrowly missing first place by just .01 seconds. Hudson also was runner-up in the 50-yard backstroke with a time of 29.36 seconds. Freshman Bria Burkholder completed the 100-yard butterfly with a second-place time of 1:02.10.

Both teams will be back in competition in 10 days with a dual meet at Bloomsburg on Saturday, Oct. 4. 

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