Happy Thanksgiving from Haven Swimming

Our team is at home enjoying some quality family time and some much deserved time away from campus, but not away from the pool! We are back to practice Monday afternoon and will put in a good quality week before finals.

I'd like to give a shout out to all of our Haven Swimming supporters. We have the best parents, students, alumni, family, and friends, and it leaves us with a lot to be thankful for! Here's to everyone out there in Haven Nation having a GREAT Thanksgiving!

One Final Morning Practice Before Thanksgiving

Blog note: We have surpassed 87,000 views on this blog! Gotta love Haven Nation!

A nice morning practice before letting our team hit the road after their final class of the day yesterday. Nicole and Alex, who are unable to travel this season get the opportunity to get a great and fast swim with the team cheering them on. Both dropped time from their earlier season swims and it was great to see the TEAM supporting them, as they know just how hard Alex and Nicole work for them. I am excited to see how far they have come, and know they’ll be great assets to our team in the next season!

The morning practice also marked the end of our Baby Drive for Bread and Life in Brooklyn. We’d like to thank everyone that helped us collect diapers, baby food, formula, and other baby items over the previous few weeks. It was great to see the LHU community step up and support this!

Saturday Prelims and Finals

Limited computer access last night means blog gets posted with prelim and final results.

Saturday Prelims
Kayla Schnars started out by dropping 5.6 seconds from her season best to go a PSAC qualifying cut os 2:13.47. Taylor Andress dropped nearly 4 seconds to go 2:28.56.

The 100 Free was a HUGE race for Haven Swimmers. Danielle Parowski made it back 2nd at night by going a 53.69. Kristen Capretti qualified 7th with another gutsy morning swim and a PSAC qualifying time of 54.71. This swim was a lifetime best in a lifetime full of great swims. Qualifying 8th was Carley Nitchie with another lifetime best time of 54.98. Abby Miller made it back into the 16th spot with a season best 56.52.

Kaitlyn Druby dropped to a season best 58.21, Jamie Mason dropped 1.5 seconds to go 58.47, Liz Barney with a 58.91 (down from the start of the season of 1:07.3) Megan Dunn went a 1:00.88, her best, and Meghan Kuhn dropped 5.4 seconds to go to 1:06.85.

In the 200 Breast Amanda Thomas made it back into 7th place with a 2:41.73 and another lifetime best.  Ciara Conklin qualified 13th with a 2:49.20.

In the 200 Fly Kristin Taylor qualified 3rd with a 2:14.81 and earned herself a PSAC cut. Allie Muha qualified 4th with a 2:17.01, also stamping her ticket to York PA in February. Meghan Kuhn stepped up and earned ANOTHER second swim in the 200 fly with a 2:48.69, a best time by 2 seconds.

H.B. Culpepper's for lunch. A great and calm sit down restaurant since we checked out of our hotel in the morning. Then it was back to the pool to rest until warmup for the final session of finals.

Saturday Finals
1650 Freestyle
The 1650 is seeded by 1000 time for this meet, Danielle was in Lane 1 in the final heat (the one that opens up the finals session). This was another huge swim from a huge weekend for her. Her first 1000 was out in 10:46.99, which broke the school record in that event--and she did it to a flip turn instead of a finish. She also broke the 1650 record with a 17:59.39. Its not often you see 2 school records on the same swim.

Shout out to the team from Saint Vincent. They didn't have a swimmer in the 1650 final and since some of their swimmers grew up with Danielle they went wild for her the entire race. It was much appreciated and its great to see swimmers cheering on a great swim!

In the 200 back Kayla capped off a great meet of backstroke with a lifetime best of 2:12.59 and a second place finish. Taylor was a bit slower at night, but scored points with her 2nd swim of 2:30.84 and her 2nd best ever in the event.

In the 100 Free Danielle dropped a few hundreths of a second to end up 2nd with a 53.62. Carley was 8th, Capretti 12th and Abby 17th, all a bit off their morning swims, but still good effort!

In the 200 Breast Amanda capped off a great meet and season (she will be headed to Scotland for a semester abroad in the Spring--we'll miss her) with a lifetime best swim of 2:41.43, taking 8th. Last year at the Pidgeon meet she went 2:54.07, amazing improvement.

In the 200 Fly Kristin finished 3rd with a 2:14.15, and Allie Muha finished 5th, improving her time to 2:16.77 both improved on their earlier PSAC cuts. Meghan Kuhn scored points and improved on her best by swimming 4 seconds faster than her morning swim to go 2:44.22

All relays dropped time from their seeds (which were composed based on previous 100 times.) It was nice to have 4 relays in the water and have every single swimmer going after it in the final event of the meet.

A Relay- Kristin Taylor, Carley Nitchie, Kristen Capretti, and Danielle Parowski- 3:45.83
B Relay- Megan Dunn, Jamie Mason, Kayla Schnars, Abby Miller- 3:55.53
C Relay- Kaitlyn Druby, Liz Barney, Ciara Conklin, Allie Muha- 4:01.41
D Relay- Taylor Andress, Emily Shultz, Amanda Thomas, Meghan Kuhn- 4:23.85

We finished the session in 3rd place behind IUP and Saint Vincent. Entering the final session we were only 15 points ahead of the 4th place team, Notre Dame College.

Final Scores are as follows:
1. IUP 1518.5
2. Saint Vincent 891
3. Lock Haven 743.5
4. Notre Dame 695
5. Wheeling Jesuit 612
6. Mansfield 347

After the meet followed a "Swimmer's Choice" dinner stop. As many as they wanted to make, we ended up with Sheetz, Taco Bell, and Dunkin. After what seemed like a forever bus ride (ran into some snow,) but made it safely back to Lock Haven around 10.





Final Session!

Friday Finals

Session 4 kicked off with a huge 200 Medley Relay- Our A relay went from a 1:57 to a 1:51.96. HUGE race from Kayla Schnars, Kaitlyn Druby, Kristen Capretti, and Carley Nitchie. In that race, Carley split a 23.84. Huge race.

The B relay of Abby Miller, Ciara Conklin, Jamie Mason, and Megan Dunn had a solid race, finishing in 2:02.85.

In the 400 IM Kristin Taylor finished 5th with her lifetime best time of 4:53.54, just missing the PSAC cut of 4:53.27. Allie Muha improved on her morning swim to finish 7th in 4:55.12.

Meghan Kuhn  and Emily Shultz finished 16th and 17th in the first ever evening swim at a prelims/finals event. Kristin Taylor came back on short rest and put forward a 1:02.18, good enough for 4th place.

In the 200 Free, Danielle Parowski finished 1st with another school record, beating the great Amanda Terray's relay leadoff split from PSACs in 2010. Danielle lowered the time to 1:53.58, which is also an NCAA "B" cut!

Kristen Capretti finished the race 6th. Very excited to see what she can do in the 100 free tomorrow.

In the 100 breast, Druby took 5th place points, Amanda Thomas finished 10th, and Ciara Conklin finished 16th, all scoring points.

In the 100 back Kayla finished 2nd with a time of 1:00.04, Abby Miller 11th with a 1:06.32, and Taylor Andress 12th with a 1:07.97.

The 800 free relay of Kristen Capretti, Allie, Kristin Taylor, and Danielle picked up 4th place points with an 8:15.94.

Dinner was a fine Italian establishment called Spaghetti Benders, a place I loved when I lived here. The Lasagna was just as good as I remembered it, and everyone seemed content.

Tomorrow will be a checkout and morning swim, with prelims beginning at 9am!

Friday Prelims!

A lot of season best swims with quite a lot of overall time dropped during this session.

Kristin Taylor got us started in the 400 IM, making it back for 5th place in a 4:55.35. Allie Muha had a 4:56.11 and will swim in the middle lane tonight in heat 2. They both got back in the water  in the following event 100 fly with Kristin taking 6th, and Allie taking 11th. Allie will scratch to focus more on the 400 IM.

Also in that event Emily Shultz went a season best by 3.4 seconds to finish 15th with a 1:11.53. Meghan Kuhn dropped 2.7 seconds to go a lifetime best of 1:13.61. Both of them will join Kristin in getting a 2nd swim tonight.

Danielle Parowski is seeded first going into tonight with a school record time of 1:55.70. (her second event of the meet, but third record of the meet). Kristen Capretti had a very gutsy swim going 2:00.83, just .4 off of the PSAC cut in the event. She'll be in the final heat and get another shot at it tonight.

Jamie Mason dropped 3.1 seconds to finish 2:09.80. Megan Dunn dropped 11.5 seconds from her early season 200 swim, but for a bonus event that she rarely swims it was a great swim!

Kaitlyn Druby led the way in the 100 breast with a time of 1:12.06 she will be seeded 3rd. Amanda Thomas went a lifetime best 1:14.56 and will be swimming 10th in the B final. Ciara Conklin went a flat start season best and will be swimming again tonight.

Kayla Schnars is the top seed in the 100 back, going 1:00.20.Abby Miller went a  1:05.33, which is her LHU career best. Taylor Andress dropped 2.7 seconds from her seed to go 1:06.99.Carley Nitchie will get a second swim as well, placing 15th in going 1:07.84!

The B 800 Free relay finished up the morning session, dropping nearly 20 seconds from their seed.

Subway for lunch, and now everyone is relaxing and getting ready for the next session!

Thursday Finals!

Danielle Parowski set the school record in the 500 freestyle with a 5:10.00. Awesome swim, and she took the first 200 out in a 1:57.9, moving her up the top 5 list from 5th to 3rd in that event. She will swim the 200 tomorrow by itsself, so we'll see how fast she can go!

Allie Muha and Kristin Taylor both had great 200 IMs with times of 2:20.53 and 2:20.64. Kristins was a lifetime best.

Carley Nitchie improved her time in the 50 to 24.83, taking second in the event and just off of her lifetime best in the event of 24.82. Kristen Capretti scored 9th place points with a time of 25.60.

Kayla Schnars qualified for PSACs with a 59.86 in the 100 backstroke as a lead off in the 400 medley relay.

 Lets talk about relays...

Our 200 Free Relays took
4th-1:42.07
11th-1:48.02
16th-1:53.99

400 Medley Relay
2nd-4:05.56 (seeded 6th with a 4:13.56)
7th-4:17.74 (seeded 4:27.59)
13th- 4:34.63 (seeded 4:42.41)

With some pretty great (and sometimes lifetime best) relay splits. Tonight was a BIG night for Haven Swimming, and it was great to see so many have rewarding swims.We are currently sitting in 3rd after night #1 is officially in the books!

Ruby Tuesday's takeout for dinner....Not the best I've ever had, but the team seemed to enjoy it. We're a little earlier on prelims and warmup tomorrow, so we'll be out of here at 8am to go warmup with the prelims session beginning at 10am.

Excited for another big day of racing! GO HAVEN.

Thursday Morning-Prelims

A lot of season bests in the morning session! 

Danielle Parowski started out her meet with a school record in the 500 free- 5:11.85, eclipsing the mark set by Kasey Campbell on her final swim of her career in 2012. Danielle went out fast and kept pushing all the way to the wall. Very excited about her swim and looking forward to seeing what she can do seeded 1st in finals!

Carley Nitchie also had a big morning, swimming 24.96 (Goodbye 25.79!) in the 50 free and qualifying for the PSAC meet! She is tied for 2nd going into finals.

Also getting second swims tonight are Kristin Taylor and Allie Muha in the 200 IM, and Kristen Capretti in the 50 free.

9th Street Deli for lunch (GREAT food on the cheap!) and we also checked into our Hampton Inn for the remainder of the trip. For sure the best hotel in Indiana PA, and we're excited to spend the rest of our trip here.

Some relax time at the hotel, then we are on our way back to warmup at 5:00pm. Final will start at 6:00pm, and will start with the 200 Free Relay, 500 free, 200 IM, 50 Free, and the 400 Medley Relay. Should be a great session. GO HAVEN!

Wednesday: We're Here! Calm Before the Storm!

We did our warm up swim in Zink Hall. IUP has been known through the years to have unique backstroke flags (anyone else remember the neon lights?), but I've never seen noodles used. Find out something new every day!

Romeo's Pizzeria for dinner. Afterward Butch and Trish (Ciara's parents) came to  our hotel to meet up with their daughter for her birthday.The team sang happy birthday to our newest 21 year old (FLASHBACK, Ciara celebrated her 18th birthday at this meet.) and it was rest and relax time for the rest of the evening.

We are all set and ready for prelims tomorrow morning and I couldn't be more excited to get this meet started! The meet's live results will be available on the Meet Mobile app for Apple and Android. Search for "Pidgeon Invite".

Prelims will begin at 11am and will be a relative quick session with 15 swims scheduled for Haven Swimming.

Order of events in the morning are:
500 Free
200 IM
50 Free

I'll update the blog tomorrow afternoon, but follow Twitter (@HavenSwimming) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/havenswimming) for quicker updates!

GO HAVEN!

Danielle Parowski Named Student Athlete of the Week!

After putting her name on LHU's All Time Top 5 list in her 3rd event, Danielle Parowski was named LHU's Female Student Athlete of the Week!

Danielle's bio can be viewed HERE.

LHU Athletics Student Athlete Honor Roll

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Meet at Millersville 11/9/2013

Tough loss at Millersville 112-92, but seeing a lot of good things leading into our mid-season rest meet in less than 2 weeks!

The 400 medley relay of Kayla Schnars, Kaitlyn Druby, Kristin Taylor, and Kristen Capretti took 1^st with a time of 4:14.36.

Emily Shultz and Meghan Kuhn both had solid swims in the 1000 free, taking 3^rd and 4^th place and scoring some valuable dual meet points!

Danielle Parowski won the 200 free and put her name on the All Time Top 5 list along the way with a time of 1:58.63.

Carley Nitchie had a close race, getting out touched in the 50 free with a time of 25.91.

Allie Muha and Kristin Taylor had season best 200 IMs and taking 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. The girls came right back and this time Kristin Taylor took 1^st and Allie 3^rd in the 100 Fly. BIG finish by Muha in this one,  and she showed major guts in finishing strong.

Danielle Parowski and Kristen Capretti had a great 100 freestyle, finishing 1^st and 2^nd with times of 55.71 and 57.11.

Kayla Schnars was first in the 100 back with a time of 1:02.95.

Danielle was facing a tough swim on short rest in the 500 and came up with the 2^nd place finish in a time of 5:32.86. Allie Muha had her first 500 of the season and finished 4^th with a 5:45.63. Liz Barney took 5^th and dropped 8 seconds to finish 5:49.78.

In the 100 breast Kaitlyn Druby went a 1:14.30, and Amanda Thomas and Ciara Conklin both finished with season best times of 1:16.70 and 1:17.69.

The 400 free finished out with some strong swims. Looking forward to seeing it at IUP!

Nino’s Pizza for lunch. GREAT food…small restaurant. We were told that we could have the whole back room, lucky for us we went at 2:45pm between lunch and dinner, because our Haven traveling party took the whole place! It continues to amaze me and fill me up with pride to know how well traveled our team parents are. You are all truly a part of what makes Haven Swimming great and I know our swimmers appreciate it!

11 days until we pull out of the circle of The Haven for the IUP Invite. Looking forward to a great meet and a great and well deserved rest phase for the women. 

For those keeping track at home, bus ride movies in this order: Bridesmaids, Footloose (the new one), and ELF…Its never too early.

Thanks again to all Haven Swimming supporters!

GO HAVEN!

Chatham Invite

For those of you that have been anxiously awaiting, here is the recap of the Chatham Invite. It has been a VERY busy week for the entire Haven Swimming program, and we’re excited to be on the road yet again, this time to Millersville! The recap of that meet will be up shortly after the meet! 

We traveled down on Friday afternoon, leaving around 2pm to minimize class conflicts. I can truly say that there are not too many sights that I have seen more beautiful than Pittsburgh in the Fall.

That being said we took a bit of a detour all around the city on Friday night, and needless to say we skipped to just getting our dinner from Hemmingway’s Café and relaxing a bit in the hotel on Friday night, and then checked out to get a longer swim in the morning.

The meet recap is below, You can also see LHU’s official release HERE. There were a lot of GREAT swims and fun races.

The team of Kayla Schnars, Ciara Conklin, Jamie Mason, and Carley Nitchie took 2^nd in the 200 Medley Relay.

Kaitlyn Druby had huge wins in the 50 and 100 Breast. Allie Muha received 4^th place points in the 100 breast as well.

Danielle Parowski took first in the 200, 100, and 500 freestyle. In the 200 Kristen Capretti took 2^nd, Kristin Taylor 3^rd, and Allie Muha 6^th, all scoring some BIG points.

Kayla Schnars won the 50 back, 100 back, and 200 back.

Ciara Conklin had an amazing swim in the 200 breast and took 2^nd place.

Kristin Taylor took 1^st in the 100 fly , she was the overall high point scorer on the day with 87.50 points.

Carley Nitchie took first in the 50 free.

Meghan Kuhn stepped up and added 3^rd place points in the 200 fly!

The 200 Free Relay of Danielle Parowski, Abby Miller, Kristen Capretti, and Carley Nitchie took 2^nd to finish out the meet.

Overall the team scores were as follows:

Lock Haven University: 816

Juniata College: 570

Mansfield University: 476

Chatham University: 445

Franciscan University: 359

Dinner on the way home was a quick one, and I can say that as a team it may have been the fastest stops we’ve ever made (3 restaurants in 25ish minutes!). The Chatham Invite was our 3^rd of 4 meets in a row (4 Saturday’s in a row)

Shout out to Haven Faitful Britt Maguire who has anxiously been awaiting this post! You’ll get the Millersville recap tonight!

GO HAVEN!