Swimming and Diving Heads to Patriot League Championship

Feb. 15, 2007

WASHINGTON - The American University men's and women's swimming and diving teams head into their biggest meet of the season beginning Friday at the Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championships hosted by Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

2006 Patriot League Female Swimmer of the Meet Meghan Thiel will lead the women's team into action. Thiel, who won the Female Swimmer of the Meet award for her wins in the 200, 500 and 1650 free in 2005 and 2006, will look to defend those titles for the third straight year. Thiel is the top-seed in the 500 (4:49.64) and the 1650 free (16:36.52) and is ranked second in the 200 free (1:51.35).

She is joined by senior co-captain Kaitlin Moughty as an expected top finisher for the Eagles' squad. Moughty, recently featured on AUEagles.com, is a three-time All-Patriot League First Team honoree and will be looking for the first PL individual title of her career. Last season she finished second in the 400 IM, third in the 200 free and fourth in the 200 IM. This year Moughty is seeded second in the 200 IM, the 400 IM, and the 200 back. She is also ranked sixth in the 200 free.

American's women's team is also looking for strong performances from Erin Devlin. The AU junior was a 2006 All-Patriot League second team selection and will look to eclipse her 10th and 11th seeds in the 100 and 200 breast, respectively.

The young men's team is led into the Championships by juniors Chris Leggett, Matt Bank and captain Joe Coronato. After a successful buildup culminating with a strong meet almost two weekends ago at Bucknell, Leggett is looking to make the conference final for the second straight year in the 50 free. He is currently seeded fourth in the 50 free, and tenth in the 100 fly. Bank is seeded third in the 100 fly and Coronato is seeded 11th in the 200 free. All three are also part of the third seeded 200 free relay team.

The Eagles have already competed at Bucknell twice this year with the last trip earning the team four first place finishes and six second place finishes in their final tune-up before the championships.

The three-day meet begins at 10:30 a.m. Friday morning due to a delay caused by adverse weather. Check back with AUEagles.com for full recap and results following each day of action.