• Full Results

MECHANISBURG, Pa. (Feb. 21) – Behind four top-10 finishes in the finals on Sunday, the California University of Pennsylvania swimming team moved up one position to finish in fifth place at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships.

The fifth-place team finish by the Vulcans in 2010 ranks as the second-best performance in program history at the PSAC Championships behind only last year's third-place showing.

Cal U received 32 points in the team standings after the 400 freestyle relay of sophomore Melissa Gates (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley), senior Rachel Kurta (McDonald, Pa./South Fayette), freshman Kelly Geras (Reading, Pa./Muhlenberg) and graduate student Ester Bosch (Barcelona, Spain/Universidad Ramon Illull) finished third overall in the finals with a time of 3 minutes, 31.25 seconds.

Gates and Bosch posted back-to-back finishes in the 100 freestyle, finishing third and fourth, respectively. Gates shaved nearly two-tenths of a second off her preliminary time to finish the finals in 51.13 seconds and Bosch swam a NCAA Championship 'B' time at 52.12 seconds.

Freshman Georgia Emert (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) closed her impressive performance at the PSAC Championships by finishing sixth overall in the 200 backstroke after touching the wall in 2:07.73. In the preliminaries of the event, Emert made a NCAA 'B' time of 2:07.41.

In the preliminaries of the 200 butterfly, freshman Bruna Carvalho (Para, Brazil/Miltom Campos) posted a NCAA 'B' qualifying time of 2:10.56. Also in the event, sophomore Ellie Imhof (Bradford, Pa./Bradford) posted a personal-best time of 2:14.67, which was nearly 15 seconds off her seed time.

West Chester won the as PSAC Championship for the fourth-straight season with an untouchable 756 points. Clarion finished in second with 469 points followed by Shippensburg (397) and Kutztown (351). On the final day of competition, Cal U moved passed Gannon to finish fifth in the team standings with 323 points while the Golden Knights tallied 299 points.

The Vulcans conclude their season when they send six swimmers – Bosch, Emert, Gates, Geras, Kurta and freshman Caitlyn Sirkoch (Plum, Pa./Plum) – to compete at the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Akron, Ohio, from March 11-14.