Scholar Athletes Fall 2013

Last night at the halftime of the women's basketball game our athletes that achieved a 3.25 or higher GPA in the Fall 2013 semester were honored. We had 7 swimmers represented in this ceremony, a great showing by our team academically!

Swimming Fall 2013 Scholar Athletes
Taylor Andress
Kristen Capretti
Ciara Conklin
Megan Dunn
Meghan Kuhn
Kayla Schnars
Kristin Taylor

Final Session 2014

For the final session of the 2014 PSAC meet we had just one relay to swim, the 400 Free Relay. Relay, as well as the PSAC senior ceremony. There were a LOT of seniors this year, and we would certainly like to wish all seniors the best of luck of their future endeavors.

Again, special shout out to our 5 swimmers from the class of 2014.
Kristen Capretti
Ciara Conklin
Kaitlyn Druby
Kayla Schnars
Kristin Taylor

In the 400 Free Relay, Kristen Capretti, Carley Nitchie, Kristin Taylor, Danielle Parowski finished 12th place for 10 points with a time of 3:41.20. With that event complete, we ended up finishing 11th overall and 4th among PSAC's womens only teams.

Final results for PSACs can be viewed HERE.

Our team led a cheer for all of the PSAC women's only teams!


Senior Ceremony

Session 7: Sunday Prelims

A pretty quick morning session for us as we had swimmers in the first two events.


100 Free
Carley Nitchie got the session started with a lifetime best and a 54.93 and finished in 34th place. Kristen Capretti had he final individual swim of her PSAC career and went a lifetime best of 54.55 and finished in 28th place.Danielle Parowski was right in front with a 54.51 and finished in 27th place.


200 Back
Kayla didnt quite have the swim she wanted in the 200 back, but was looking strong until the final 15 yards and finished with a 2:14.19. Kayla has had an amazing career with Lock Haven, and has had a very solid final PSAC meet. She'll be missed in and out of the water next year!


The hotel allowed us a late checkout for 4 rooms, so the women are resting just like any normal session and Mo (our athletic trainer), Jimmy, and I are hanging out in the lobby watching basketball.


Tonight we have the 400 Free Relay
Kristen Capretti
Carley Nitchie
Kristin Taylor
Danielle Parowski


Looking to finish out the meet with a great relay. There will be no blog post tonight as we will be traveling back, but as always please check out the official LHU Athletics website www.GOLHU.com


GO HAVEN!

Session 6: Saturday Finals

Another big night for Haven Swimming.

Danielle Parowski dropped from her morning swim to go 5:09.17, a new school record and a 13th place finish!

Kayla Schnars had her debut finals swim and finished with a 59.72 and a 13th place finish. Looking forward to a great finish to the meet from Kayla tomorrow in the 200 Back.

In the 200 Fly, Allie Muha finished with a 2:14.22 in 12th place and Kristin Taylor went a 2:15.17 to get 14th place points.

After a 20 minute break, Danielle, Allie, Kristin, were back in action, joined by Kristen Capretti. The relay dropped 5 seconds from the IUP swim to go 8:05.17.

You can check out LHU's official write up HERE.

Chilli's for dinner,

Tomorrow we have:

100 Free
Danielle Parowski
Carley Nitchie
Kristen Capretti

200 Back
Kayla Schnars

Looking forward to finishing out this meet right! GO HAVEN!

Session 5: Saturday Prelims

Great morning session for The Haven!

Danielle got us started in the 500-- The pad malfunctioned, but when the dust settled and the officials figured out her official time she sat at 5:10.52, (just off her school record of 5:10.00), and she will get a second swim tonight.

Kayla Schnars continued her huge week with a time of 59.71 (second only to her swim last night) but good enough for 10th and a trip to her first ever individual evening swim at PSACs!

Allie Muha got the 200 fly started with a lifetime best of 2:13.02. This improves her time in 3rd on our All Time Top 5 list.

Kristin Taylor followed her up with a season best 2:13.96, and the two women are seeded 12th and 14th going into tonights second swim.

A lot of Haven Swimmers in scoring position tonight! Very excited and also looking forward to our 800 Free Relay tonight consisting of:
Danielle Parowski
Allie Muha
Kristin Taylor
Kristen Capretti

Lets have a fast night of PSAC racing! GO HAVEN!

Session 4: Finals

Big night of racing for The Haven with time dropped, lifetime bests, and a career finished with a best ever swim!

We had the 200 Free Relay and the 400 Medley Relay on the agenda tonight.

200 Free relay: 1:40.24 11th place
Carley Nitchie: 24.81
Kaitlyn Druby: 25.52
Kayla Schnars: 25.27
Kristen Capretti: 24.64-GREAT bounceback swim by the senior!

The 400 Medley Relay was as follows
Kayla Schnars: 59.55-Lifetime best
Kaitlyn Druby: 1:09.11- career best split in final career swim. Congratulations Swammer!
Kristin Taylor: 1:00.38
Danielle Parowski: 53.84

All four of these women had big races to get this session going. Throughout the years, Haven Relays have really brought together our team and its important to swim fast for your teammates around you. I am incredibly proud of this team tonight and looking forward to the races tomorrow.

On tap in the AM, we have
500 Free
Danielle Parowski

100 Back
Kayla Schnars

200 Fly
Allie Muha
Kristin Taylor

Session 3: Friday Prelims

400 IM
Allie Muha and  Kristin Taylor both had a tough draw of lane 8 in the circle seed heats, but pushed through. Allie went a season best 4:53.00, Kristin was a 4:55.68, Pretty solid with a hard back to back coming up with the 100 fly.

In the 100 fly Kristin finished with a season best 1:01.75.

The 200 Free had some time added, but both Kristen and Danielle will get an opportunity to swim it again in the 800 freestyle relay tomorrow.

Tonight we start out with the 200 Free Relay
Carley Nitchie
Kaitlyn Druby
Kayla Schnars
Kristen Capretti

and will finish with the 400 Medley Relay
Kayla Schnars
Kaitlyn Druby
Kristin Taylor
Danielle Parowski

Tonight is the one and only night of having multiple relays, as tomorrow has the 800 free relay and the final night the 400 free relay.

This change in format has provided much more rest for our swimmers between sessions. We had Panera Bread for lunch and hopefully everyone is energized and ready to go for the finals session! GO HAVEN.

Session 2: Finals

Finals for night number one for us was just one swim, the 200 Medley Relay, and what a swim it was. These four women put their heart and soul into putting up a time for each other, and that is what makes relays so great.

The splits were:
Kayla 28.21
Kailtyn: 31.85
Kristin 27.38
Carley 24.22

for a total time of 1:51.66, dropping time from the mid season IUP swim.

A great night of swimming for the PSAC, including several meet records and a NCAA DII national record. Its fun to be part of such a great conference!

Full results for the night can be viewed here.

Tomorrow morning we have:
400 IM
Allie Muha
Kristin Taylor

100 Fly
Kristin Taylor

200 Free
Danielle Parowski
Kristen Capretti

Should be another great day of swimming of this 4 day meet. GO HAVEN!

PSAC Session 1

Session 1 is in the books. With us switching over to a 4 day format, this meet will feature quick sessions

Allie Muha got us started with a 2:21.12 in the 200 IM.

In the 50 free Kayla Schnars dropped to a season best 25.93, Kristen Capretti dropped to a 25.29, and Carley Nitchie found her lifetime best in lane 8, finishing with a 24.72 and finished in 19th place.

Danielle Parowski was just off of her school record time of 10:49.

Having 2 vans helped us out, as we had to wait for the final 1000 free to finish before leaving, but Jimmy was able to take the swimmers back for lunch early while Mo, Meghan and myself waited for the meet to finish. I am liking the flexibility this travel arrangement has given us.

Tonight we have the 200 Medley Relay which are timed finals. We'll have the following order:
Back: Kayla Schnars
Breast: Kaitlyn Druby
Fly: Kristin Taylor
Free: Carley Nitchie

Pre Meet Warm Up!

Great trip to York today with a stop at Applebees on the way, We arrived at our hotel around 4pm to get checked in. Our women ordered what they wanted for dinner and we made our way over to the new home of PSAC Championship Swimming for the next three years, the Graham Aquatic Center in York. Our women were the first in the water and got a pretty good warm up in. When the main competition pool opened at 8 they did a few starts and a warmdown.

Olive Garden for dinner tonight! A big positive of having 2 vans to travel is that we had one van of swimmers come to the hotel to relax while Mo (our athletic trainer) and Meghan K (our York local GPS!) made our way to get the food. Everything went smoothly, and our swimmers were off to bed.

Looking forward to some great races in our new pool tomorrow, LHU's official meet preview can be viewed HERE.

Shout out to the Athletic Department GAs and interns that took the time to decorate our vans. The Haven is a special place to be right now because of the teams getting together and supporting one another!

Looking forward to a great first day. GO HAVEN.

Senior Profile: Kristin Taylor

From Dillsburg, PA and is the daughter of Rob Taylor and Patty Taylor. Kristin majored in Accounting, Business, Marketing, Economics and Finance. Her favorite events are 200 fly and 400 IM. Kristin’s most memorable swim was at CAL U her freshmen year when she time trialed the 200 fly by herself and she hit her first PSAC cut. Her favorite practice were 8 broken 1000’s in California last year and any time that she partner cools down with me! (We finally got that flip-turn down). Kristin’s favorite thing at LHU are all of the friends that she has made throughout the years that have turned into part of her family. Also the island and lane 6! Her advice to next year’s seniors: as Andy said, it takes a special person to swim for 4 years. Work hard and don’t give up. It’s definitely worth it in the end. Push through the pain and tears. And keep rocking the island. In 10 years Kristin sees herself married and starting a family. Maybe being a stay at home mom if she’s lucky. If not she wants to be doing something in finance or a CPA.

Senior Profile: Kayla Schnars

From Bellefonte, PA and is the daughter of Mark and Jody Schnars. Kayla majored in Health Science and her favorite events are the 100 and 200 backstroke. Her most memorable swim was her first ever college swim meet. Kayla was swimming the 200 back and she stopped after 150 yards and heard her whole team screaming GOO. Kayla also remembers swimming the 100 back at IUP 5 different times trying to make it to PSACs but she finally made it at CAL U! Her favorite practice is any practice that involves backstroke since as most you know Kayla is much better at backstroke then freestyle. She also loves any practice that involves social kicking. Kayla’s favorite things at LHU are the friendships that she has made over the past four years. As well as the newly found nanobites café at east campus; she says they have the best Panini’s she has ever had as well as the chips with honey mustard. Mmmm delicious. Her advice to the seniors for next year would be to live in the moment and to not take anything for granted because before you know it you will be getting ready to graduate. Have fun, do things you never thought you could do. Be hopeful for what is to come in the future and never look back. In 10 years Kayla sees herself married to the love of her life working as a nurse in a well-known children’s hospital.

Senior Profile: Kaitlyn Druby

From Palmyra, PA and is the daughter of Richard and Mary Ellen. Kaitlyn majored in Psychology. Her favorite event is 100 breast. Kaitlyn’s most memorable swim would be her sophomore year when a girl from ESU and her swam every event together and Kaitlyn out touched her in every event. After the meet she told her that Kaitlyn was the first person to ever push her to her fullest potential. Kaitlyn’s favorite practice isn’t necessarily her favorite one but it is one that she won’t ever forget. Freshmen year on training trip, Ciara and Kaitlyn were swimming a set and they weren’t too happy and one of the sets consisted of at least 4 kicks of breaststroke before they could come up for a breath. Well Kaitlyn and Ciara weren’t really feeling all of the kicks and so Kaitlyn only took 3 kicks and when she got to the other end of the pool she could hear Andy scream from 7 lanes away screaming her name and said that the practice said 4 kicks. Not anything less and that she better not do it again. Ciara heard this and started laughing and said sucks for you and with that Andy yelled you think that’s funny Conklin well you can do 6 kicks! Needless to say the two of them have never valued breathing as much as they did after that practice. Even today Kaitlyn won’t come up until she has done all of the kicks she has been asked to do because of that practice coming back to haunt her. Kaitlyn’s favorite thing at LHU is definitely the regatta she loves all the food, games, and of course the scrambler ride! Her advice to the seniors of next year is that is obviously it is going to suck at times and that you’ll want to cry, scream, and even quit. But just remember the girls by your side who have been with you from the beginning and then the thought of quitting won’t even exist. Enjoy it and live it up because it goes by in the blink of an eye. Kaitlyn sees herself with a job that she loves and a family with lots of kids running around 10 years from now.

Senior Profile: Ciara Conklin

From Washingtonville, NY and is the daughter of Butch and Trish Conklin. Ciara majored in Sports Administration. Her favorite even is the 100 breast. Ciara’s most memorable swim were all of her years from her freshmen year but most of all, all of the times that Andy would just laugh with her after her not so great swims. Her favorite practice is any lucky suit or anything involving floating or doggy paddle. Ciara’s favorite thing at LHU is the swim team, all of the friends she made here and of course Bentley. Her advice to next year’s seniors is to have fun and always smile. These four years go by way too fast to let things suck the happiness out of you. And to always have each other’s backs. In 10 years Ciara sees herself working as an athletic director or a college swim coach with a family and kids. She hopes that her children are not as crazy as she is and she will of course stay in touch with her swimming family.

Senior Profile: Kristen Capretti

From Lebanon, PA and is the daughter of Tony Capretti and Lisa Simpson. Kristen majored in environmental biology. Her favorite event is the 100 free. Her most memorable swim was at PSACs her freshmen year when Andy put her as the anchor in the 400 free relay. After the race he told her her split and that they also broke the record! Kristen’s favorite practice would be one of her hardest practices with Stoner when she did 100s sprint for 2 hours on fast intervals. Her favorite thing about LHU is the atmosphere of the loving and caring people all around you on and off of the pool deck. Cappy’s advice to the seniors next year: “Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.” Live in the moment and never in the past or future. Enjoy every moment because you blink and you’re a senior and graduating college. In 10 years Kristen sees herself happy with a family and a successful and enjoyable job.

Haven Invite/Senior Day

Saturday's meet was our annual last chance meet for PSACs and provided an opportunity for us to honor our 5 seniors (their bios will be posted individually throughout the week.)

Our 5 Seniors this year are
Kristen Capretti
Ciara Conklin
Kaitlyn Druby
Kayla Schnars
Kristin Taylor

Also graduating:
GA: Jimmy Mattern

For the meet, every event except the 1650 was offered, and our swimmers picked their own events. This provides an opportunity to swim some outside of the box events for PSAC qualifiers, and one more chance to swim fast for those that have not yet.

The official LHU write up can be found HERE.

A few notes:
Kaitlyn Druby had an amazing and gutsy swim, going 1:10.60 in the 100 breast.

With the 200 backstroke, Kristin Taylor joins Allie Muha from last week in participating in every event offered over the course of a college career. Very cool way to celebrate senior day!

Abby Miller had a great 100 free in 56.21, she went out racing, and I am looking forward to see what she splits on the relay at PSACs!

Afterward we had tailgate and celebration for the seniors in the connected gym, and after some great food, the juniors presented them with gifts from the team and showed a slideshow of the seniors, a great way to end a great day.

We are now set on getting ready for PSACs on Feb 20-23rd in York PA! Keep an eye out for our senior bios this week!