Rowan women’s swimming has crossed the midway point of their season, and the Profs find themselves with a 2-3 record through five team meets. Despite this, the team has kicked it into high gear for a record-breaking past couple of weeks.

Ella Pennington secured two NCAA B-Cut times at the Franklin & Marshall Invitational back in November, winning both the 100 back (56.31) and the 100 fly (55.37) during the second day of the competition.

Pennington also broke her own school record in the 200 backstroke on the last day of the invitational, as her performance in that event also reached the quota for a NCAA B-Cut time.

The moment her meet ended, she was at first unaware that she had broken the record until looking over at her teammates.

“When I finished my 200 backstroke, I didn’t even look at the scoreboard, I went and looked down at my teammates, and their hands were already in the air,” said Pennington. “I was like, they better not be lying to me right now because they were almost as excited as I was. So, it was just really awesome to me to be able to make them proud of me like that.”

The junior broke another record against No. 13 Johns Hopkins (JHU) on Dec. 6, securing a JHU pool record with a first-place finish in the 200 backstroke (2:01.24). Despite Pennington’s performance, the team fell to the Blue Jays by a final score of 185-76.

“I feel like we really showed up and performed at mid-season, and everyone felt at least decently good,” said Pennington. “We’re really ready to attack the rest of the season.”

Freshman Lilyanna Martin has also made a statement throughout her rookie season in the 200 fly, finishing third with a time of 2:08.33 and breaking the previous four-year school record of 2:09.77.

“It was actually really shocking because I didn’t think I was gonna break it during our mid-season,” said Martin. “It was a long-term goal, so it was really awesome.”

With a little over a month remaining until the team’s next meet, Pennington claims they have their eyes set on improving during their break in order to have a strong showing during the championship season.

“I think we’re just all really excited to work hard over the break and then come back and really get into the nitty-gritty before our championship meet,” said Pennington.

For comments/questions about this story DM us on Instagram @TheWhitSports or email sports@thewhitonline.com