Rowan women’s swimming fell to Salisbury for the third straight year on Saturday, 177.5-84.5, at the Maggs Pool in Salisbury, Maryland. It’s Rowan’s first loss of the season, tabbing their record at 2-1.

As competition progressed through a non-conference at Salisbury, the Rowan women’s swimming team could hardly even tell if they were swimming well.  That’s because Salisbury’s pool is measured in meters, not the traditional yards that the Profs, like many programs around the country, are familiar with.

“It was very hard for our staff to accurately measure and identify how we were doing,” Head coach Elise Fisher said. “Not only were we comparing to the competition, but now we were trying to convert times from meters to yards and identify ‘Are we doing well?’ or ‘Are they doing just really well?’ It was just challenging, and I admit that.”

Kaitlyn Crouthamel, a junior who’s started the year really strongly, placed second in her favorite event of the 200 Individual medley. She also tied for first place in the 400 Free, tying Salisbury swimmer Rowan O’Donoghue at 4:35.16, and splitting 6.50 points each way.

“That was a first,” Crouthamel said. “I feel like tying in a (50 Free) is one thing, but to tie in a 400, I feel like the odds of that were so low. I was ecstatic with it, just to be able to keep up with Salisbury, who has a lot of really good girls.”

Sophomore Rhylee Cornell, who earned New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Swimmer of the Week after Rowan’s first meet against Stevens, also swam well in the loss. Cornell had runner-up finishes in both the 100 and 200 Breaststroke, with times of 1:15.42 and 2:45.01, respectively.

“I feel like we did all that we could,” Cornell said. “We tried as hard as we could. And there’s a lot of effort shown, despite not coming out as the winners.”

Senior Ella Pennington swam in her second meet this season at Salisbury, after earning NJAC Swimmer of the Week in her first meet at Montclair State. Pennington placed first in the 100 and 200 Backstroke events, as well as the 100 Butterfly. Both backstroke times of 1:03.64 in the 100 and 2:20.42 in the 200 broke facility records.

Now, the team sets its sights on another out-of-conference meet at West Chester on Saturday at 11 a.m. before a 13-day break.

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