In their first New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) meet of the season, Rowan women’s swimming fell to the Seagulls 152-110 and dropped their record to 1-2 on the year.

There were still multiple bright spots in the meet for the Profs despite the loss.

Ella Pennington was named NJAC Swimmer of the Week for the second consecutive week after her strong performance against Salisbury. Pennington posted the fastest time in the NJAC this season with her win in the 100 butterfly (57.49) as well as winning both the 100 backstroke (58.28) and 200 backstroke (2:10:07) for the second meet in a row. Her times in those events rank top-10 nationally.

“She’s a competitor and I think ultimately being able to tell her here’s the job that we need to get done, she’s always able to do that,” head coach Elise Fisher said. “She’s a hard worker not just in the pool, but outside of the pool as well and I think that’s a true testament to the type of competitor that she is.”

Pennington was also a part of the winning 200 medley relay along with Rhylee Cornell, Kailey Sheehan, and Laura Jones (1:50:90). She praises each of her teammates for excelling in their relay roles against such tough competition. 

“Salisbury is such a good team and they’ve had a really good showing this year. Everyone has their thing that they do for the relay and then everyone shows up and does it to their best,” Pennington said. “It’s just really encouraging and inspiring just to be a part of that and just see everyone perform at such a high level.”

Jones also had a solid meet, finishing second in the 50 freestyle (25.09) and third in the 100 freestyle (55.85). 

After losing to the Seagulls on the road last season, Jones says her teammates and herself wanted to prove that they could still compete now and as the season progresses.

“Last year we went to Salisbury and the meet did not turn out how we wanted, so we knew that this year we wanted to come back and bring everything that we had,” Jones said. “We had some tough competition again, but I just wanted to be a good competitor and I wanted to show Salisbury that Rowan is still here to compete, whether that be at a dual meet or at the NJAC’s in February.”

The Profs now have nearly two weeks off before their second NJAC meet of the season against Montclair State on Nov. 15. 

After finishing fourth at the NJAC Championships last season, Fisher says her team’s desire to improve has motivated them for all of this year’s conference matchups, giving them a good indication of what the tournament will look like later this season.

The eagerness of where we performed at the end of last year and what the outcome was of our conference championship meet definitely had us eager for Salisbury and has us equally eager for Montclair [State] this upcoming week,” Fisher said. “We’re excited for not just what we’re going to do against them in the dual season, but also what that’ll look like at the conference championship.”

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