• Friday Results
• Saturday Results

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (Oct. 17) – The California University of Pennsylvania swimming team opened the 2009-10 season over the weekend with a pair of dual meet losses at Alaska Fairbanks, falling 108-86 on Friday and 118-86 on Saturday.

Against the Nanooks, sophomore Melissa Gates (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) set pool records in both the 50 and 100 freestyle. Gates also was member of two winning relay teams on Friday. She won 50 freestyle with a pool-record time of 24.23 seconds in the first meet, breaking the previous record that was set in 1986. She then posted a record-time of 53.37 seconds in the 100 freestyle on Saturday. Gates' times in both 50 and 100 freestyle are 2010 NCAA Championship “B” qualifying times. She also qualified for the PSAC Championships in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1 minute, 9.68 seconds.

In the 200 freestyle relay, Gates, freshman Kelly Geras (Reading, Pa./Muhlenberg), junior Lauren Arnold (Pittsburgh, Pa./Brentwood) and senior Rachel Kurta (McDonald, Pa./South Fayette) won the event with a time of 1:44.29.

The 200 medley relay team of freshmen Georgia Emert (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield), Caitlyn Sirkoch (Plum, Pa./Plum) and Bruna Carvalho (Para, Brazil/Miltom Campos), along with Gates, defeated the Nanooks with a time of 1:53.60.

In her first career meet, freshman Megan Schuh (Spokane, Wash./Moses Lake) won the 500 freestyle by 15-hundredths of a second with a time of 5:27.73.

On Saturday, Carvalho won the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:01.68 and qualified for the 2010 PSAC Championships.

The Vulcans are idle for two weeks before returning to action on Saturday, Oct. 31, with home dual meets against Edinboro and West Virginia Wesleyan at Hamer Hall.