• Results

CALIFORNIA (Jan. 30) – The California University of Pennsylvania swimming team set three new meet records and a pool record to claim a second-place finish with 609 points at two-day Vulcan Dual Meet Challenge over the weekend at Hamer Hall.

Competing against Lock Haven, Mansfield and Division III Chatham, Cal U won 10 of the 27 events over the weekend. The Bald Eagles won the four-team invitational with 735 points, followed by the Vulcans, Cougars (548points) and Mountaineers (234points). In dual meet action at Hamer Hall, Cal U posted a 2-1 mark with wins over Chatham (73-56) and Mansfield (99-28).

The 400 freestyle relay team of graduate student Ester Bosch (Barcelona, Spain/Universidad Ramon Illull), senior Rachel Kurta (McDonald, Pa./South Fayette), freshman Kelly Geras (Reading, Pa./Muhlenberg) and sophomore Melissa Gates (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) won the event and broke their own pool record with a time of 3 minutes, 37.19 seconds. The relay team broke the previous school-best time set earlier this month by 1.27 seconds.

Gates also set a new Vulcan Dual Meet Challenge Invitational record in the 100 breaststroke after winning the event in 1:07.38 and Bosch won the 200 freestyle after touching the wall in 1:57.38.

Bosch and Gates were also members of the winning 200 and 800 freestyle relays for Cal U at Hamer Hall. In the 200 freestyle, Gates, Geras, Kurta and Bosch won the event by nearly three seconds with a time of 1:39.06. Later in the weekend, Gates, Bosch, Kurta and freshman Georgia Emert (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) posted a victory in the 800 freestyle relay after touching the wall in 8:03.66.

Emert also earned individual victories in the 200 and 400 IM and 500 freestyle. In the 200 IM, the Lancaster native won the event with a meet-record time of 2:16.19 and also set a meet record in the 400 IM after touching the wall in 4:49.32. Emert then swam a winning time of 5:20.83 in the 500 freestyle at Hamer Hall.

Freshman Bruna Carvalho (Para, Brazil/Miltom Campos) won the 200 butterfly with a meet-record time of 2:15.20 and classmate Megan Schuh (Spokane, Wash./Moses Lake) added a victory in the 1000 freestyle after finishing the race in 11:15.58.

The Vulcans return to action on Saturday, Feb. 6, when they compete at Pittsburgh in Trees Pool against Clarion, Carnegie Mellon and the host Panthers.