Women's Swimming Secures Third-Straight MEC Title, Finishes 3rd Overall in Conference Champs

CANTON, Ohio – The Frostburg State Women's Swim team concluded their outstanding week with an MEC Championship, finishing third overall and tops in the conference for their third-straight Mountain East title.
 
Ending her week of consistent First Team All-MEC performances, junior Lydia Nebiolo secured another individual conference victory in the 200-yard backstroke at 2:12.27. During the preliminaries, she swam a 2:09.54 to break the previous record set by Laura Schlegel that had stood since 1982. She was followed by several top-10 program marks, with freshmen Jayme Meadows (2:13.07) and Gabriella Douglas (2:13.84) taking fifth and sixth all-time, respectively, while senior Riley Petrick (2:18.88) had a new personal best in setting the ninth-fastest time.
 
Senior Liz Perry picked up her second individual conference title of the meet, taking sixth overall in the 100-yard freestyle at 53.41. Douglas (54.09) and freshman Rachel Rickabaugh (54.64) put up the sixth- and seventh-best times in school history, respectively, while junior Amaya Burke swam a 55.07 PR for 10^th all-time.
 
For the final individual First Team All-MEC race, junior Natasha Paciello took fifth overall in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:28.34, breaking her personal record as the second-best in program history. Taking Honorable Mention All-MEC honors in the 1,650-yard free, junior Amanda Soustek smashed her personal best in 18:34.64, putting herself third in the FSU record books.
 
Finally, in the 400-yard free relay, the team of Rickabaugh, Nebiolo, Perry, and junior Kendall Hooper took third overall and tops in the MEC at 3:32.92, blowing past the previous program high by nearly three seconds.
 
Frostburg finished with 964.50 total points, coming third overall behind national powers Findlay and Hillsdale, while beating out Ashland from the GMAC and the second-best MEC team in Fairmont State. It was the team's highest-ever finish at the combined championships. 
 
First Team All-MEC
100 Free – Liz Perry
200 Back – Lydia Nebiolo
200 Breast – Natasha Paciello
400 Free Relay – Rachel Rickabaugh, Lydia Nebiolo, Kendall Hooper, Liz Perry
 
Honorable Mention All-MEC
1,650 Free – Amanda Soustek
100 Free – Gabriella Douglas
200 Back – Jayme Meadows
 
Women's Team Scores
1.Findlay – 1,948 points
2.Hillsdale – 1,563 points
3.Frostburg – 964.50 points
4.Ashland – 699 points
5.Fairmont State – 555 points
6.Wheeling – 500.50 points
7.Davis & Elkins – 458 points
8.Notre Dame (Ohio) – 423 points
9.Malone – 204 points
10.West Virginia Wesleyan – 160 points