SELINSGROVE, PA – The Susquehanna University men's and women's swimming teams will compete in the Middle Atlantic Conference Swimming Championships at the Wilkes-Barre Catholic Youth Center beginning at noon on Friday, February 9 through Sunday, February 11.

A total of 13 individual and five relay champions will be crowned in both men's and women's competition. Preliminaries will be held during the afternoon session while finals will be contested during the evening sessions.

The Susquehanna men (5-4 overall, 5-2 MAC) finished fifth out of 10 schools and the women (2-8 overall, 4-6 MAC) finished seventh out of 11 schools at the 2006 MAC championships.

Performance lists were released on Wednesday afternoon with final scratches and heat assignments to be announced late Thursday. Swimmers are allowed to compete in a maximum of three individual events and seven total events (including relays) during the championships.

Leading the Crusader men will be junior Jeff Fornadley (Hummelstown, PA/Hershey), who is the defending MAC champion in both the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle, and was the runner-up in the 50 freestyle at last year's championships. Fornadley is seeded first in the 100 freestyle (49.27 seconds), second in the 50 freestyle and fifth in the 200 freestyle entering this year's meet.

Junior Alex Thurstlic (Chadds Ford, PA/Garnet Valley) rejoined the team in January after studying abroad in the fall and immediately established himself as a contender in the 200 individual medley, in which he is seeded fifth after finishing third at last year's MAC meet. He is also seeded ninth in the 200 butterfly, looking to improve on last year's sixth-place finish.

Junior Andrew Lyon (Glenside, PA/Cheltenham) will be a contender in both the 500 freestyle and 1650 freestyle after placing 10 th in the 500 free and fifth in the 1650 free last year.

Sophomore Derek Wolf (Mechanicsburg, PA/Mechanicsburg) will be making his MAC championship debut after missing last year's meet due to injury and will challenge for gold in the 100 breaststroke, where he is the top seed with a time of 1:02.11, and in the 200 breaststroke where he is seeded fourth.

Leading the Crusader women is freshman Melissa Gilpin (Blue Bell, PA/Wissahickon), who is seeded eighth in the 200 butterfly (2:27.27) and 13th in the 100 butterfly (1:06.27), while junior Lindsey Moretti (Alfred, NY/Alfred-Almond) will look to improve on her ninth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke and attempt to break into the top 10 in the 200 breaststroke after finishing 14th last season.

Juniors Samantha Meddaugh (Hamilton Square, NJ/Steinert) and Kelly Leighton (Wilkes-Barre, PA/Meyers) will also battle for points in the 1650 freestyle, as Meddaugh is seeded 13th after finishing 12 th a year ago while Leighton is seeded 16 th after finishing 19th last year.