By Grace Ostuni
Staff Writer
The Franciscan University women’s swim team travelled to Grove City College to compete in the 2023 PAC Championship from Feb. 15 to Feb.18.
The Lady Barons placed fifth with a score of 307 points, beating Chatham University, Bethany College and Washington & Jefferson College. This is the third time Franciscan has competed in the PAC Championship.
In total, five school records were broken during this year’s competition.
On the night of Feb. 15, the 800-yard freestyle relay A team broke a school record from 2014 by over 23 seconds with a time of 8:20.43. Team members Katarina Antonov, a freshman, sophomore Bridget Bartosik, senior Olivia Mete and freshman Kate Kinst earned fifth place with the record break.
Antonov also proceeded to break the school record in the 500-yard freestyle the next morning, beating her seed time by 18 seconds with a time of 5:22.01. Kinst also swam her new best time for the event: 5:38.55.
For the 100-yard backstroke on Feb. 17, freshman Lucia Garvey made the finals, placing eighth with a new personal best time of 1:03.54. Sophomore Jessica Stiles also made the finals.
On Feb. 18, Antonov became the first Baron in program history to win an event at the PAC Championship. She won the 1650-yard freestyle, breaking another the school record with a time of 2:40.66.
In the last individual event, Stiles earned 10th place in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:40.66.
The last event was the 400-yard freestyle relay. Bartosik, Mete, Kinst and Antonov broke another school record with a combined time of 3:51.40.
This event concluded the Baron’s 2022-2023 swim season.