ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley swimming teams are all set to compete for conference championships this weekend at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships being hosted at the Graham Aquatic Center in York.
 
The championships will begin on Thursday and run through Sunday night with two sessions a day. The first session each day will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the second session will start at 5:30 p.m. There will be no ticket sales on-site. Ticket sales will be managed online at Ticketleap. Re-Entry is not allowed. Student ID will be required to be shown with student ticket. Ticket Prices are per session and are set at $10 for adults and $6 for students.
 
The Dutchmen women finished 10th at last year's championships while the men were 12th. Both teams are looking to improve on those finishes this year after a strong dual season. The women went 4-7 this season including a 3-4 mark against MAC foes while the men finished 3-6 and an equal 3-4 mark against MAC opponents.
 
Emily Beard will be the first Dutchman in action swimming in the 200-yard IM on Thursday morning. The junior qualified with a time of 2:31.93. Jake Beidler will also be swimming in the 200-yard IM after qualifying for the championships in 2:32.54. LVC has five entries in the 50-yard freestyle starting with Sierra Young and Jordyn Grossman on the women's team. Young is seeded at 26.14 seconds while Grossman swam 26.48 seconds. Andrew Mintoyne leads a trio of men who will look to qualify for the final at night with a qualifying time of 23.18 seconds. Jack Clawson is seeded at 23.33 seconds and Isaac Dismisa had a time of 24.18 seconds this season. The finals of each event will be held during the night session which will also include the 200-yard medley relay. Both the men's and women's squads have two entries in the relay.
 
Friday will see Young and Beard starting the morning off in the 100-yard butterfly. Young qualified with a time of 1:04.61 while Beard was right behind her in 1:04.92. The men also have two entries in the event with Justin Kopp swimming a time of 59.45 seconds and Dismisa having a seed time of 1:05.93. Kopp and Dismisa will also swim in the 200-yard freestyle preliminaries where they will be joined by Dain Vallie. Vallie leads the trio with a time of 1:56.68 while Kopp is seeded at 2:09.47 and Dismisa has a time of 2:14.07. Friday evening's final session will include the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard medley relay. The Dutchmen will once again put two teams in each relay event.
 
The Dutchmen will have Karli Averill and Grossman beginning action on Saturday morning in the 100-yard backstroke prelims. Averill qualified with a time of 1:09.13 while Grossman is seeded at 1:09.19. The men's team will have David Palmer competing after qualifying with a seed time of 1:03.05. Rachel King and Beidler will then swim in the 110-yard breaststroke. King had a time of 1:18.96 to qualify while Beidler is seeded at 1:10.50. The 800-yard freestyle relay will be contested on Saturday with the timed "B" final in the morning session and the "A" final during the evening session.
 
The final day of the Championships begins with the 100-yard freestyle. Young and Grossman will be competing in the event for the women's squad while the men have Clawson, Vallie, and Mintoyne set to compete. Young is seeded at 58.25 seconds while Grossman has a time of 1:00.38. Clawson leads the group of men with a time of 50.95 seconds while Vallie is seeded at 51.08 seconds and Mintoyne has a time of 53.82 seconds. Averill and Palmer will then swim in the 200-yard backstroke preliminaries. Averill qualified with a time of 2:35.04 while Palmer had a time of 2:26.47. The final preliminary event is the 200-yard breaststroke which will see King and Beidler competing for the Dutchmen. King has a seed time of 2:51.49 while Beidler is seeded at 2:42.67. Sunday will also see the swimming of the 1650-yard freestyle and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Vallie is scheduled to swim in the 1650 with a seed time of 12:05.31.
 
Stevens Institute of Technology was picked to repeat as winners of the men's title in the pre-championship poll by the conference coaches. LVC was selected 13th out of 14. Messiah University was selected to win the women's title again with the Dutchmen finishing 11th in the poll.

Below are the full polls.
2023 MAC Men's Swimming Pre-Championship Coaches' Poll
  

Rank	Team	Points	(1st Place Votes)
1	Stevens	169	(13)
2	Arcadia	146
3	York (Pa.)	145
4	Misericordia	131
5	Messiah	126
6	Widener	113
7	Hood	100
8	Stevenson	80
9	Lycoming	64
10	King's	62
11	FDU-Florham	49
12	Albright	38
13	Lebanon Valley	30
14	Wilkes	21

2023 MAC Women's Swimming Pre-Championship Coaches' Poll
 

Rank	Team	Points	(1st Place Votes)
1	Messiah	166	(11)
2	Stevens	157	(3)
3	Misericordia	142
4	Arcadia	133
5	York (Pa.)	112
6	Widener	108
7	FDU - Florham	101
8	Lycoming	77
9	Stevenson	72
10	Hood	63
11	Lebanon Valley	47
12	King's	42
13	Albright	38
14	Wilkes	16

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