Stroking through the water, practicing with ache after ache throughout every inch of her body, Gannon University freshman swimmer Amanda Puthoff powered through her daily workouts until injury struck.
Now sidelined with an injured foot, Puthoff observes as her team continues to progress and compete.
“My team has had to overcome negativity and work on being positive at practice and meets,” Puthoff said.
In the Grove City meet on Nov. 19, Gannon fell in all three of its head-to-head matchups against Case Western Reserve, Grove City and Rochester.
Despite the losses, the team individually competed at a high level, as eight different swimmers qualified for the PSAC Championship meet coming up in February.
Abby Wu, Jillian Pritchard and Courteney Hubert each had three qualifying times for the PSAC Championships.
Wu qualified in the 200-yard butterfly, 200 backstroke and 200 individual medley; Hubert qualified for the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events and Pritchard qualified for the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle events.
Gabrielle Borza, Ashley Rega, Meghan Terwilliger and Samantha Favret each qualified for two events.
Borza made the grade in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, Rega the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly, Terwilliger the 100 and 200 butterfly and Favret the 100 backstroke and 100 freestyle.
Marissa Scott also qualified for the 200 breaststroke.
According to Puthoff, the individual performances help the overall team effort.
Puthoff said this year’s team is special compared to others she’s been a part of “because we are an individual sport, but we don’t do things as individuals.”
“We all cheer for each other in all of our races and we always have each other’s backs,” she added.
Wu collected two first-place finishes in the meet. She posted a time of 2 minutes, 11.97 seconds in the 200 backstroke to outlast the competition and a 2:14.39 time in the 200 IM.
Favret added another first-place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:00.67.
Next, the Knights head to the Wooster Invitational in Ohio Thursday through Saturday.
KISHAN PATEL
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