Army’s Doug Klein and Chelsea Haviland Sweep Patriot League Weekly Awards
CENTER VALLEY, Penn., November 11. DOUG Klein (Red Wing, Minn./Red Wing) and Chelsea Haviland (Thief River Falls, Minn./Lincoln) led an Army sweep of the Patriot League weekly diving awards, while Bucknell's Meghan Freese (New Freedom, Pa./Susquehannock) and American's Ethan Bassett (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill) gained swimming accolades for the week ending Nov. 9.
Bassett claims the Men's Swimmer of the Week award for the first time this season after posting three individual victories in American's 153-140 loss to Army Saturday. The senior opened the meet by winning the 1,650 freestyle with a time of 15:45.88, which was nearly a minute quicker than runner-up Kevin Burke of Army. Bassett continued his winning ways with a gold medal finish in the 200 butterfly. His mark of 1:53.94 was 2.5 seconds faster than the second-place finisher. In his final individual event of the meet, Bassett stood atop the podium in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:01.36.
Freese is the Women's Swimmer of the Week for the first time this season and the second time in her career after a solid performance at the Bucknell Sprint Invitational last weekend. The senior posted individual victories in the 50 backstroke, 50 and 100 freestyle. Freese won the 50 backstroke by nearly a second with a time of 27.68. In the 50 and 100 freestyle, she set meet records with times of 24.02 and 52.63, respectively. Freese also opened the meet with a third-place finish in the 50 butterfly with a time of 27.21, finishing 0.4 seconds behind the winner. Joining the Bison at the meet were Penn State, West Chester and Bloomsburg.
Klein takes home the Men's Diver of the Week award for the second time in as many weeks and the fourth time in his career after helping the Black Knights to a 153-140 victory over American. The sophomore opened the meet by winning the one-meter event in a rout with 232.20 points, the next closest competitor registered 190.95 markers. In the three-meter dive, Klein rolled up 338.55 points to win the event by 144.3 tallies over teammate Chris Lee.
Haviland wins the Women's Diver of the Week award for the second-straight week and the ninth time in her career after winning both diving events in Army's 174-117 victory over American Saturday. In the one-meter dive, the sophomore accumulated 267.0 points en route to a 24-point victory over teammate Sarah Get. Haviland also claimed the gold medal in the three-meter event with 273.08 markers, which was 24 points more than the runner-up. She also helped the Black Knights in the pool with a fifth-place performance in the 100 freestyle.
The Patriot League, which was founded on the principles of admitting athletes who are academically representative of their class, is in its second decade of academic and athletic excellence. Participation in athletics at Patriot League institutions is viewed as an important component of the undergraduate experience. The Patriot League, which began as a successful Division I-AA football conference in 1986 and became an all-sport conference in 1990, includes American, Army, Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh and Navy as full members and six associate members. These institutions are among the oldest and most prestigious in the nation and their alumni have played leadership roles in the shaping of our country. In the most recent NCAA Graduation Rate Report of student-athletes, the Patriot League ranked FIRST among NCAA Division I conferences.