ANNVILLE, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley swimming teams are ready to compete at the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championships this weekend. The meet will begin on Thursday and run through Sunday evening at the Graham Aquatic Center in York.
 
Each day will have two sessions, with the morning preliminary session starting at 9:30 a.m. and the evening finals session starting at 5:30 each day except for Sunday, which will start at 5 p.m.
 
Both the men's and women's teams finished 10th out of 11 teams at last year's Championships. This year, the men were predicted to finish 11th while the women were selected 10th in the Pre-Championship Coaches' Poll.
 
Thursday's events consist of the 500-yard freestyle, the 200-yard individual medley, the 50-yard freestyle, and the 200-yard medley relay. The Dutchmen have three swimmers scheduled to compete in the 500 freestyle. Ryan Kuffa enters with a seed time of 5:21.42 in his first conference championships. Sophomore Owen Fastrich is also competing in his first championship meet after missing last year's meet and enters with a seed time of 5:31.49. Junior Karly Kile is competing at her third championship and will swim the 500 free for the first time since her rookie year. She enters with a seed time of 6:57.42. Senior Brian Dym and sophomore Marina Weidman are slated to swim the 200 IM. Dym is seeded at 2:31.59 in his second championship meet and first swimming the IM. Weidman is seeded at 2:31.00 and is looking to improve on her 18th-place finish in the event at last year's MAC Championship. Kuffa, Dym, Roman Schelhorn, and Noryan Mitchell are all slated to finish preliminaries on Thursday in the 50 free. Kuffa is LVC's top seed with a time of 23.29 seconds. Dym is looking to finish his career strong after finishing 29th in the event last year and enters with a seed time of 24.23 seconds. Schelhorn finished 32nd in the event at last year's Championship in his first time competing at the meet. The senior enters this year's meet with a seed time of 24.25 seconds. Mitchell enters her third Championships looking to improve on her 28th-place finish in the event last year. The junior is seeded at 27.64 seconds this year. LVC will have two men's teams and two women's teams competing in the 200-medley relay during the night session.
 
Friday's events include the 400-yard individual medley, the 100-yard butterfly, the 200-yard freestyle, the 200-yard freestyle relay, and the 400-yard medley relay. Mitchell returns to the pool for the 400 IM, where she is seeded at 5:43.79. The junior is swimming the 400 IM for the first time at a MAC Championship, though she did finish 21st in the 200 IM two years ago. Fastrich will swim in the 100 fly, where he is seeded at 1:00.01. The women have Weidman, Colbey Brown, and Nora Cuthie ready to swim in the event. Weidman is looking to improve on her 22nd-place finish in the event last year. The sophomore is seeded with a time of 1:07.45. Brown and Cuthie are making their first appearance at the conference championship. Brown is seeded at 1:12.00 while Cuthie qualified with a time of 1:20.15. Brown will also swim in the 200 freestyle, where she has a seed time of 2:28.20. The Dutchmen men have one team entered in each relay on Friday, while the women's squad has two teams.
 
Saturday's four events are the 200-yard butterfly, the 100-yard backstroke, the 100-yard breaststroke, and the 800-yard freestyle relay. Kuffa begins the day with the 100 backstroke, where he has a seed time of 1:01.71. Fastrich and Schelhorn will then swim in the breaststroke. Fastrich is seeded at 1:09.70, and Schelhorn has a seed time of 1:12.59. The women have four swimmers in the breaststroke as Weidman, Kile, Cuthie, and Mitchell will all look to qualify for the finals. Weidman finished 19th at last year's meet and is seeded with a time of 1:17.14 this year. Kile is seeded at 1:17.95 and is looking to improve on her 29th-place finish a year ago in the event. Cuthie has a seed time of 1:18.91 while Mitchell is seeded at 1:19.54. Mitchell finished 27th in the event at last year's meet. The women will have a team competing in the 800 freestyle relay during the morning session.
 
The final day consists of the 100-yard freestyle, the 200-yard backstroke, the 200-yard breaststroke, the 1650-yard freestyle, and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Kuffa will swim in the 100 freestyle with a seed time of 52.38 seconds. He will be joined by Schelhorn, who has a seed time of 57.35 seconds. Brown will swim in the event for the women's team and enters with a seed time of 1:07.78. Cuthie and Kile will wrap up action in the individual events with the 200 breaststroke. Cuthie is seeded at 2:54.32 while Kile has a seed time of 2:56.53. Kile finished 26th in the event at last year's championships. The men have one team entered in the 400 freestyle relay, while the women have two teams in the final event of the meet.

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