Heintz Takes Two as Red Flash Fall to Explorers

LORETTO, Pa. (Jan. 30, 2009) – Sophomore Melissa Heintz (Boyertown, Pa./Oley Valley) won two individual events but the Saint Francis swim team couldn’t pull out a victory as they fell to the La Salle Explorers 114-87 on Friday afternoon at the Stokes Center.

Heintz won the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:58.79, and later went on to take the 100-yard freestyle as well.  Her time of 54.50 beat out La Salle’s Carleen Caldwell by .20.  

The Red Flash “A” 200-yard medley relay team of Elise Merrill (Carlisle, Pa./Big Spring), Elyse Peterman (Lock Haven, Pa./Central Mountain),  Elyse Dobrick (Zelienople, Pa./Seneca Valley) and Blair Kosela (Crescent, Pa./Moon Township) took second place, finishing in 1:52.78.

Merrill and Kosela also combined for a 2-3 finish in the 50-yard freestyle with times of 25.21 and 25.73 respectively.

Freshman Jessica Dunn (Bristow, Va./Seton School) swam to a first place finish in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:00.69.  She also had a third place finish in the 200-yard individual medley, touching the wall in 2:13.17.

Abi May (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shaler Area), who is in her first season with the team after running cross-country for SFU, picked up second place in the 100-yard butterfly.  Her time of 1:00.38 was just .03 behind that of Aubrey Cefalo, who took first for the Explorers.

Cara Morgan (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) touched the wall in 5:26.31 in the 500-yard freestyle, picking up a third place finish for the Red Flash.  Teammates Kaitlin MacDonald and Bethany Lanzendoen were right behind her in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Merrill, Heintz and Kosela combined with Katie Snyder (Dayton, Ohio/Butler) for a second place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:41.02).

Peterman picked up a third place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:11.17.  Teammates Snyder and Chloe Pierre (Valencia, Pa./Mars) took fourth and fifth place with times of 1:11.78 and 1:12.92 respectively.

The Red Flash will host St. Bonaventure on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Stokes Center.  The meet, which will be their final home event of the season, will also mark the team’s annual Senior Day.