ESU Women's Swimming/PSAC Championships

WEST CHESTER - Mikaela Thorne and Heather Clouser broke school records as East Stroudsburg University clung to sixth place in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Women's Swimming Championships Friday at West Chester University.

Thorne, a freshman from Elkins Park, broke an 28-year-old record in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:09.95 for the eighth best time in the trials. She then went only 1:11.21 in the consolation finals and to finish 12th. The old school mark was 1:10.69 set by former ESU national champion and current Bloomsburg athletic director Mary Pakenas Gardner in 1973.

Clouser, a junior from Wyomissing, broke her own school record in the trials of the 100-yard backstroke with the meet's eighth-best time of 1:01.85. She finished ninth in the finals to place in the event for the third straight year with a time of 1:02.30. Her former mark was 1:02.08 set in 1999. She had been 12th last year and ninth as a freshman.

Jamie Miller, a junior from Northampton, had the Warriors' best finish of the day, placing seventh in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:00.37, her season best time.

The Warriors were fifth in the 200-yard medley relay in 1:53.13, a season best, with a team of Clouser, Thorne, Miller and Donna Gebhard. They also were eighth in the 800-yard freestyle relay in 8:12.63, more than a ten-second improvement over their previous best, with a team of Erin Kowalik, Maribeth Kenny, Miller and Clouser.

ESU had broken one other school record Thursday in the 400-yard medley relay in placing sixth in a time of 4:08.02. Team members were Clouser, Miller, Thorne and Kowalik.

The Warriors now have scored 97 points, already 23 more than last season, with one day of the meet remaining. Host West Chester has virtually clinched the title with 463 points with Clarion second with 276 1/2 and Shippensburg third with 189.

###