ERIE, Pa. – The Gannon men's and women's swimming teams return to dual action Saturday against NCAA Division I Canisius. The final home dual meet of the regular season will mark Senior Day for 10 student-athletes and will begin at 11 a.m. at the Carneval Athletic Pavilion Pool.
The Senior Day celebration will honor four Lady Knights and six Golden Knights. The list for the women's team includes
Morgan Lydic (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio/Cuyahoga Falls), Emily Nottingham (Titusville, Pa./Titusville), Madeline Summers (Lake Stevens, Wash./Lake Stevens), and Kelsey McCormick (Marysville, Mich./Marysville). The men's list includes:
Michael Allison (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington), Ryan Carter (Yorktown, Va./Grafton), Denys Fedorchenko (Zaporizhia, Ukraine/Zaporizkiy Collegium #98), Tommy Herman (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills), Mike Lawrence (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario/Notre-Dame-des-Grands-Lacs), and Mike Smith (Erie, Pa./McDowell).The women's squad holds a 2-7-1 overall mark this season. The Lady Knights finished third out of nine teams at the Westminster (Pa.) relay meet to open the season. Prior to the holiday break, the Lady Knights combined for 33 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC)-qualifying times and five NCAA "B" cut standard times while finishing second at the Wooster Invitational. Lydic earned posted two individual NCAA "B" cuts and was part of two relays that had "B" showings.
The men's team holds a 3-6 overall mark this season. The Golden Knights finished third out of five teams at the Westminster (Pa.) Relay meet at the beginning of the season. The Golden Knights then closed the first half of the season finishing second out of nine teams at the Wooster Invitational and swam for a combined 52 PSAC-qualifying times, while
Denys Fedorchenko posted two NCAA "B" cut times.
Nils Groeppler set a new school record in the 100-yard Butterfly, while the team of
Drew Wolter,
Allan Collins,
Michael Weiser and Fedorchenko set a new school in record in the 400-yard Freestyle Relay.
Gannon and Canisius have squared off in each of the past eight seasons. The Lady Knights have won six of the eight duals. But have suffered back-to-back losses, last year (110-95) and in 2013-14 (116-80). The Lady Knights were victorious in six consecutive meets dating back to the 2007-08 season. The Golden Knights have earned three wins during the same stretch. The Knights defeated the Golden Griffins last year, when they posted a 104-101 win.
This season, the Canisius men's team holds a 1-4 mark, while the women's team has yet to claim a victory in the pool. The men's lone victory came against Colgate University. In recent action, both teams were defeated by Cleveland State on Friday, December 18, prior to the extended holiday break.
The team returns to action on January 29, 2016 when they travel to Indiana (Pa.) for the two-day IUP Invitational at the Pidgeon Natatorium located in the Memorial Field House.
