CLARION, Pa. – The Clarion men’s swimming & diving team defeated Shippensburg in a dual for the first time in four years on Friday, with the Golden Eagles sinking the Raiders 158-72 at Tippin Natatorium.
Clarion (2-0) swimmers won all but one individual event and one of the two relays in defeating Shippensburg.
For the second straight meet the Golden Eagles excelled not just in raw speed, but also in the execution of racing strategy and fundamental details. As such, Clarion stacked points in a number of events, posting finishes where the majority of the top place-winners were Golden Eagles. The win represented Clarion’s first dual victory over the Raiders since the 2017-18 season.
“This is such a special group, and they are hungrier than ever,” said head coach Bree Kelley. “Today I told them to race, be competitive and aggressive, and swim like we train. It’s nice to see their hard work paying off.”
The Raiders got things going for themselves with a win in the 400 Medley Relay, but it would be the last time that a Golden Eagle didn’t touch the wall first until the final individual event of the night. Trent Napholz got started on his busy night with a tight win in the 1000 Free, just edging out David Johnson with a time of 10:15.67. That knotted the meet up at 18 points apiece, but it also served as the turning point in the night; once Clarion took the lead with the results of the 200 Free, they never trailed again.
Mason Irwin was the one who broke the deadlock, winning the 200 Free with a 1:45.90 that was less than two seconds ahead of Nathan Vannatter’s second-place effort. The next big stack of points came in the 50 Free when Brenek Strawn and Austin Prokopec both bested the top finisher for the Raiders to take 1-2 in the event. Strawn touched the wall in 22.12, just 0.07 faster than Prokopec’s 22.19 and less than a quarter of a second ahead of Shippensburg’s Zaidian VanOrden. Irwin struck again in the 200 IM, winning with a time of 2:00.38, while Michael Lintelman edged Trevor Woolwine for a second-place finish at 2:01.24. Both marks represented PSAC qualifying standards for Strawn and Lintelman.
The backbreaker came in the 200 Fly when David Bocci led a trio of Golden Eagles atop the leaderboard for a 1-2-3 finish. Bocci finished in 1:52.46, followed by a 1:54.38 for Connor Cary and a 2:06.11 for Nolan Songer. Prokopec notched another victory in the 100 Free, sprinting out to a time of 48.72, and the duo of Strawn and Nick Soares took the top two spots in the 200 Back Stroke at 1:56.64 and 1:57.45 respectively.
Irwin and Napholz authored another strong finish in the distance events, with Irwin hitting a time of 4:58.81 in the 500 Free and Napoholz finishing in 5:01.81. Shippensburg featured the top two finishers in the 200 Breaststroke to add to their total, but the 400 Free Relay team of Bocci, Strawn Prokopec, and Cary cruised to a time of 3:13.20 for a win in the relay.
Elsewhere, in the diving well, the Golden Eagle divers contributed to the overall points total with a couple of strong performances. Zach Schering won both the 1m and 3m Dives with scores of 431.03 and 308.93, respectively.
