GREENVILLE, Pa. (pacathletics.org)--Grove City College claimed the top spot in this year’s Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) Women's Swimming and Diving Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The league announced the results of its preseason coaches' poll along with its annual swimmers and divers to watch list Thursday afternoon. 

Voted on by each of the conference’s eight head coaches, the league’s preseason coaches’ poll has been in place since the 2014-15 season.

Grove City, directed by 14th-year head coach Dave Fritz, earned six of eight first-place votes and 76 total points. 

Saint Vincent College was second in the poll with one first-place vote and 69 points.

Allegheny College finished third with one first-place vote and 66 points. Allegheny announced its return to the PAC on August 23, 2021 after a 38-year run as a founding member of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). Allegheny was a PAC member from 1958 through the spring of 1984 and reentered the PAC as its 11th full-time member on July 1, 2022. 

Westminster College was fourth (61 pts.) and was followed by Chatham University in fifth (51 pts.), Washington & Jefferson College in sixth (48 pts.), Franciscan University in seventh (411 pts.) and Bethany College in eighth (36 pts.).

Grove City secured its third-straight PAC title last February. It was the program’s PAC-best 19th team title. Grove City paced the seven-team field with 1,048 points. 

This year’s swimmers and divers to watch list includes 18 returning All-PAC selections, including 12 All-PAC First Team honorees. Of the 20 events contested at last year’s championships, the winners of 11 individual events are mentioned on the list.

Headlining this year’s list are Saint Vincent senior Lauren Connors (Pittsburgh, Pa. | Upper St. Clair) and Westminster sophomore Christina Loewe (Austin, Texas | Veritas Academy). Connor was honored as last year's PAC Swimmer of the Year while Loewe earned the PAC Newcomer of the Year award.  

Connors was Saint Vincent's first-ever women's PAC Swimmer of the Year honoree. She won the 200 backstroke for the third-straight year with a time of 2 minutes, 28.35 seconds. She also led off Saint Vincent's second-place 400 freestyle relay (3:41.47). She anchored Saint Vincent's winning 200 freestyle relay (1:35.66), won the 200 IM (2:12.94) and swam backstroke on the second-place 400 medley relay (4:00.37). Connors swam backstroke on Saint Vincent's second-place 200 medley relay (1:46.82) and won the 100 backstroke (58.37). 

Loewe posted runner-up finishes in both the 100 backstroke (59.78) and the 200 backstroke (2:09.33) and added a sixth-place finish in the 100 butterfly (1:00.90). She anchored Westminster's runner-up 800 freestyle relay (8:13.50) and swam backstroke on both the third-place 200 medley relay (1:53.73) and the third-place 400 medley relay (4:08.91). 

The programs at Allegheny, Chatham, Grove City, W&J and Westminster were honored in June by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) as Scholar All-America teams for the spring 2022 semester. 

The swimmers and divers to watch list also includes 11 members of the PAC’s Spring 2022 Academic Honor Roll, which recognizes student-athletes who have earned a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.6 or higher on a 4.0 scale during their semester of competition.

Grove City will once again host the PAC Championships at the James E. Longnecker Competition Pool. Longnecker Pool has been the home of the PAC Championships since 1990. The four-day event is scheduled for Wednesday-Saturday, February 15-18. 

The NCAA Division III Region 4 (Northeast/South) Diving Championships are slated for Friday-Saturday, February 24-25. 

The Division III Championships are scheduled for Wednesday-Saturday, March 15-18 at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina. The event will be hosted by the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). 
 

2022-23 PAC Women's Swimming and Diving Preseason Coaches' Poll (Predicted order of Championships finish)
School (first-place votes)	Points	2021-22 Championships finish
1. Grove City College (6)	76	1st (of 7) at PAC Championships, 1048 pts.
2. Saint Vincent College (1)	69	2nd (of 7) at PAC Championships, 765.50 pts.
3. Allegheny College (1)	66	7th (of 9) at NCAC Championships, 616 pts.
4. Westminster College	61	3rd (of 7), at PAC Championships, 659 pts.
5. Chatham University	51	4th (of 7) at PAC Championships, 369 pts.
6. Washington & Jefferson College	48	5th (of 7) at PAC Championships, 330 pts.
7. Franciscan University	41	6th (of 7) at PAC Championships, 272.50 pts.
8. Bethany College	36	7th (of 7) at PAC Championships, 7 pts.

2022-23 PAC Women's Swimmers and Divers to Watch

Allegheny
Name	Yr.	Events	Hometown | High School
Maggie Baham	Sr.	Fly, Free	Richmond, Va. | Glen Allen
Ariana Clark	Sr.	Free, Fly	Pittsburgh, Pa. | Freeport
Jenna Halenda	Sr.	Back, Free	Pittsburgh, Pa. | Mars
Olivia Kraus	Jr.	Free, Fly	Pittsburgh, Pa. | North Allegheny
Katya Pryschenko	So.	Free	Malvern, Pa. | Aim Academy

 

Bethany
Name	Yr.	Events	Hometown | High School
Aidah Shuttleworth	So.	Free, Breast	Dayton, Ohio | Chaminade Julienne Catholic

 

Chatham
Name	Yr.	Events	Hometown | High School
Maddy Cisco	So.	Free, Back	Greensburg, Pa. | Hempfield
Ali Cowan	So.	Dive	Derry, Pa. | Derry
Hannah Kane	Fr.	Free	Somerset, Pa. | Somerset
Kaya Vital	So.	Breast	Milford, Conn. | Foran

 

Franciscan
Name	Yr.	Events	Hometown | High School
Bridget Bartosik	So.	Free	Lomita, Calif. | Homeschooled
Kristen Farabaugh	So.	Breast	Charlottesville, Va. | Albemarle
Kate Kinst	Fr.	Free, IM	Pittsburgh, Pa. | Fox Chapel
Olivia Mete	Sr.	Breast	Welland, Ontario | Notre Dame College School

       

Grove City
Name	Yr.	Events	Hometown | High School
Rachel Grubbs	Sr.	Back	Industry, Pa. | Western Beaver
Liz Hasse	Jr.	Free	East Earl, Pa. | Homeschooled
Kamryn Kerr	So.	Dive	East Grand Rapids, Mich. | East Grand Rapids
Rachel Ledford	Sr.	Back	Butler, Pa. | Homeschooled
Rachael Wallace	Sr.	Fly	Hopewell, Pa. | Hopewell

 

Saint Vincent
Name	Yr.	Events	Hometown | High School
Sarah Alexander	So.	Free	Catonsville, Md. | Mount deSales Academy
Sara Basala	Sr.	Breast, IM	Somerset, Pa. | Somerset
Madison Cassidy	So.	IM, Breast	Greensburg, Pa. | Greensburg-Salem
Lauren Connors	Sr.	Back, IM	Pittsburgh, Pa. | Upper St. Clair
Erica Steele	Sr.	Free	Greensburg, Pa. | Greensburg-Salem

 

W&J
Name	Yr.	Events	Hometown | High School
Amanda Graves	Jr.	Free, Back	Irwin, Pa. | Penn-Trafford
Sydney Neumann	So.	Breast, IM	Long Beach, Calif. | Millikan
Taylor Newton	So.	Free	Olyphant, Pa. | Scranton Prep.
Molly Nielsen	Jr.	Free	Erie, Pa. | Harbor Creek

   

Westminster
Name	Yr.	Events	Hometown | High School
Natalie Carlantonio	Fr.	Free, Back	Slippery Rock, Pa. | Slippery Rock
Olivia Herman	Jr.	Free, Breast	Hamburg, N.Y. | Hamburg
Christina Loewe	So.	Breast	Austin, Texas | Veritas Academy
Sara MacMurdo	So.	Free	Pittsburgh, Pa. | Carlynton