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AU Swimming & Diving Heads to PL Championships
Men's squad looks to challenge for first league title

February 20, 2003

Ethan Bassett	Jessica Lidstrom
Mark Liscinsky	Dominick Szabo

WASHINGTON -- Returning three 2002 Patriot All-League performers, the American University men's swimming & diving team will contend for its first league title this weekend at the Patriot League Championships to be held at Bucknell's Arthur D. Kinney Jr. Natatorium Feb. 20-22.

The Eagles, coached by Mark Davin, were second last season to four-time defending champion, Lehigh University. The AU women's swimming & diving team that nabbed third last year will be lead by junior Jessica Lidstrom (Stockolm Sweden/The Swedish School in London), who was the Patriot League Women's Swimmer of the Week Nov. 12. Lidstrom captured first in the 100 and 200 freestyle events at last year's league championships.

Senior Mark Liscinsky (Olney, Md./Sherwood) was last year's Patriot League Championship Men's Swimmer of the Meet, shattering three league meet records in the process. After all that, Liscinsky has experienced a breakout final season, setting league records in the 200 backstroke, 200 freestyle and 200 individual medley.

Junior Dominick Szabo (North Wales, Pa./North Penn) has already qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 100 breaststroke to be held next month. Szabo broke an 11-year-old Patriot League record in the 100 breaststroke at the Princeton Invitational in December in a time of 54.14. He also set the Patriot League record in the 200 breaststroke this season.

Also heading up the American men will be junior Ethan Bassett (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill), who set a new Jacobs Pool record at Lehigh in the 200 breaststroke (2:04.99). Bassett was the 2002 Patriot League Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Representing in the diving events will be junior Adam Schryver (Harrington Park, N.J./North Valley Old Tappan), who took home Patriot League Male Diver of the Week honors January 21. Against the Mountain Hawks, Schryver tallied 227.40 points on the 3-meter board for a career best.

Freshman Christina Huang (Hubei Province, China/Wuhan) could also be a factor at the championships in the backstroke events while junior Kia Kilpinen (Stockholm, Sweden/ASO Gymnasium) competes in the freestyle events.

American University, which fields a 19-sport NCAA Division I athletics program featuring 10 women’s sports and nine for men, recently completed its inaugural year of membership in the Patriot League. The University had an extremely successful year to date on respective fields of play, capturing league championships in men's cross country, women's cross country, men’s soccer, women's soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis, and regular-season titles in men’s basketball and women’s lacrosse.

Chartered by an Act of Congress in 1893, American University features students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and more than 160 nations worldwide.