LANCASTER, Pa. – The three-time defending Centennial Conference champion Ursinus College women's swimming team is predicted to add more hardware to its growing trophy case, as the Bears topped the CC preseason poll released Wednesday morning.
Ursinus received six first-place votes and 48 total points to head the prognostications of the conference's head coaches. Gettysburg, runner-up for the last three seasons, earned two first-place votes and was second with 43 points. Franklin & Marshall (36) was third, followed by Swarthmore (31), Dickinson (26), Washington College (20), and McDaniel (13).
Five-time defending CC Coach of the Year Mark Feinberg returns plenty of talent from last year's squad, which posted the third-highest team score in championship meet history to land more than 200 points clear of the second-place Bullets. Six All-CC selections are back, including a two-time All-American in sophomore Clara Baker and last year's CC Most Outstanding Performer and Most Outstanding Rookie in classmate Peyten Lyons.
Baker collected All-American honors in both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly at the NCAA Division III championships, becoming the first freshman All-American at Ursinus since 1991. Lyons, meanwhile, won six gold medals at the CC championship, snagging individual titles in the 100 back, 200 back, and 200 IM.
Junior Sydney Gundersen was a member of the first-place 200 free, 400 free, and 200 medley relay teams, and classmate Meggie Leitz was victorious in the 200 butterfly and runner-up in the 100 butterfly. Another junior, Olivia Tierney, is the back-to-back champion in the 200 breaststroke, the first in program history to accomplish that feat.
Junior Katherine Porter was a silver medalist in the 200 fly.
Three Bears currently hold individual CC records – Lyons in the 100 back and 200 IM, Tierney in the 200 breast, and Baker in the 100 fly. Additionally, Ursinus is responsible for all five relay records.
Ursinus has won 39 consecutive dual meets and 24 straight CC meets since its last loss, at Swarthmore on December 8, 2012. The Bears look to add to those streaks when they open the 2016-17 season at Dickinson on Saturday, October 29.