CLARION, Pa. – IUP women's swimming and diving picked up a 166.5-133.5 dual-meet victory over Clarion on Friday, while the Crimson Hawk men fell to the Golden Eagles, 164-134.
IUP's women used a balanced effort throughout the meet, collecting victories in multiple disciplines while also opening and closing the swimming portion of the meet with relay wins. The Crimson Hawk men also posted several strong performances, highlighted by three individual victories from Zen Schaetzle.
The Crimson Hawks opened the meet by sweeping the 200-yard medley relays. The women's quartet of Kasha Stokes, Tina Cudina, Gem Crittenden and Natalie Noll touched first in 1:47.36, more than four seconds ahead of Clarion's runner-up relay.
On the men's side, Ty Uhlig, Patrik Kudla, Schaetzle and Logan Ames combined for a winning time of 1:35.36, edging Clarion's top relay by less than a second.
Benedetta Bellini helped set the tone individually for the IUP women with a pair of distance freestyle victories. Bellini won the 1,000 freestyle in 10:48.55, leading an IUP sweep of the top three spots. Isla Moore followed in 10:56.72, while Ava Keever was third in 11:08.11.
Bellini later completed the distance sweep by winning the 500 freestyle in 5:18.20. Moore again finished second in 5:22.65, giving IUP another one-two finish.
Stokes controlled the women's backstroke events, beginning with a victory in the 100 backstroke. She touched in 57.16, nearly four seconds ahead of the field, while teammate Lillian Farmer finished third. Stokes added another victory in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:10.02, again finishing ahead of the field with Farmer placing third.
Cudina also earned multiple individual victories for the Crimson Hawks. She won the 100 breaststroke in 1:06.47, with Laney Dittmar taking second in 1:09.79. Cudina later touched first in the 100 freestyle at 54.03, followed immediately by IUP's Sydney Anderson in second at 54.58.
Crittenden added a sweep of the butterfly events. She won the 200 butterfly in 2:06.76 before returning later in the meet to take the 100 butterfly in 57.38.
Summer Esson provided another individual victory for the IUP women in the 200 individual medley, finishing in 2:12.23.
IUP capped its women's swimming performance with a victory in the 200 freestyle relay. Cudina, Noll, Delaney Hunsinger and Stokes combined for a time of 1:38.25, beating Clarion's top relay by more than two seconds. IUP's second relay of Farmer, Anderson, Destini Homan and Esson finished third.
Schaetzle led the way for the IUP men with three individual victories. He first won the 200 butterfly in 1:56.14, with teammate Jeffrey McArthur finishing second in 2:01.35.
Schaetzle followed with a victory in the 100 butterfly, touching in 51.36 ahead of Clarion's Gavin Guckavan. IUP's Trent Powell placed third in 53.27.
He completed his three-win individual performance in the 200 IM, edging Clarion's Darren Bittner with a time of 1:58.46. Bittner finished just .14 seconds behind in 1:58.60.
Uhlig added a sweep of the men's backstroke events. He won the 100 backstroke in 53.44 before taking the 200 backstroke in 1:56.57, edging Bittner by .32 seconds in the latter.
In diving, Aubrey Kauffman paced the IUP women with fourth-place finishes on both boards, scoring 236.85 points on the one-meter and 217.73 on the three-meter. Jeremiah Laslavic led the IUP men, placing third in both events with 260.25 points on the one-meter and 292.80 on the three-meter.
The IUP women finished the meet with a 166.5-133.5 victory, while Clarion earned a 164-134 decision in the men's competition.
