Kurt Harnish ’20
Staff Writer
Lebanon Valley College men’s and women’s swim teams concluded their season with the MAC Conference Championship meet on Feb. 16-18, and some swimmers walked away with records and medals.
The Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championship meet started on February 15 with two relay races. Individual events took place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Ian Lloyd, a senior butterfly specialist, was ecstatic to win another gold and set a new swim record, giving him 15 LVC records. On Friday, he won the gold in the men’s 200-yard IM and broke his own original record with a new time of 1:53.58, which is also a MAC championship record.
“It is great to achieve this feat again, but the win is much more than my own,” Lloyd said. “My teammates, family and coaches have been so great and have helped me to achieve this honor. Without them, I would not be who I am today.”
On Saturday, Courtney Betsock, a freshman breaststroke specialist, broke an LVC school record in the 100-yard breaststroke. Her time of 1:13.31 beat the previous record time of 1:13.68. Betsock ended up making two final appearances over the weekend in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 breaststroke. Betsock has 3 more seasons to go and hopes to build on her success.
“As a freshman it was cool being able to break a record and I hope in the future, I can continue to lower my times,” Betsock said. “Being pushed by my teammates and coaches definitely helped me to lower my times during MAC’s.”
Kaitlyn Welch, another LVC freshman, broke the women’s 100-yard LVC backstroke record with a time of 1:03.10. She plans to continue to make strides in her swimming ability.
Albright College won the men’s team championship, while Messiah College won the women’s team championship. LVC men placed 9th in the overall standings and the women placed 11th. Both the men’s and women’s team will lose many seniors to graduation, but both teams have good young underclassmen still on the team.
kph001@lvc.edu