By Carley Wise
Staff Writer

This season has been one of the most successful seasons for the KU women’s swimming team since 2012. With an 8-2 record, placing sixth at the Franklin & Marshal invite and breaking into the top 10 at PSACs, the KU swim team has defied the odds with their small but mighty team. The 2019 PSAC team was made up with a total of nine KU swimmers. The team consisted of seniors Claire Frank and Katerina Parowski; junior Carley Wise; sophomores Ali McLaughlin, Jocelyn Seidt and Lindsay Brenneman and freshmen Charlotte Owens, Emma DeCaro and Keelie Walker.

The PSAC is a four-day swim meet with prelims and finals each day. As a team, they placed 10th and made the podium for two relay events, but as individuals, each swimmer made their own accomplishments. Frank placed 15th overall in the 100-yard backstroke, narrowly missing her career-best time by two seconds. She also time trailed the 50-yard freestyle, had a personal best of 24.79 and moved herself to 5th in top 10 in KU history. Parowski, McLaughlin, Seidt, Wise and DeCaro all had season-best times in the 50-yard freestyle.

Brenneman had personal best times in all three distance events. She placed 10th in all events, respectively, with 10:37.20 in the 1000-yard freestyle, 5:07.58 in the 500-yard freestyle and 17:45.05 in the 1650-yard freestyle (the mile). She also placed 12th in the 200-yard butterfly with 2:12.47. Owens and DeCaro both made C finals for the first time as PSAC swimmers. Owens placed 22nd in the 100-yard breaststroke and 24th in the 200-yard breaststroke and DeCaro tied for 23rd in the 200-yard freestyle with 1:58.84.

Parowski and McLaughlin both had season-best times in the 100-yard freestyle, the 500-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle. Wise had season-best times in both the 100-yard freestyle and the 100-yard fly. Walker fell sick during the four day meet, but she still managed to finish out the meet and place 32nd in both breaststroke events.

The KU PSAC team managed to place 8th in both the 200-yard free relay (Parowski, Frank, McLaughlin and Wise) and the 800-yard free relay (Brenneman, McLaughlin, Parowski and DeCaro). Overall, it was a successful meet for the KU Bears, and the team is looking forward to returning next season to do even better. All meet results can be found on the Kutztown Athletics website, KUBears.com.