BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — In recent years, the CSUB women's swimming and diving team has had flutters of excellence, with individuals posting nine new all-time top five marks. This season, beginning Saturday at the USC Invitational, Head Coach Pat Skehan is looking for even more from her squad, and notes the increased level of ability and depth as reasons for that to be a sustainable goal.

“We are on a different page,” said Skehan  of her five seniors, 10 juniors, two sophomores and five freshmen. “We have more numbers and more depth and our middle people are better than we've had in the past.”

Leading the way will be junior Stephanie Donnelly (back/fly) and sophomore Rachel McCall (free/breast). Both have cracked into CSUB's all-time top five list in multiple categories and will look to improve upon those marks, while also anchoring the relay teams.

Junior transfers Brooke Penney (free) and Rachel Holm (breast/free) are expected to make an immediate impact for the Roadrunners. Penney was a California Community College Athletic Association All-American in 2008 and 2009 for Ventura College. Holm earned the same honors while also leading Sierra College to a pair of runner-up finishes at the CCCAA State Championships.

Freshman Louise Westergren, a native of Malmo, Sweden, and a member of the Swedish National Team, is also expected to provide depth in the free and fly events.

In the one and three-meter springboard diving events, two-time Bakersfield Californian Diver of the Year Jordan Reed joins senior Victoria Kreutz and sophomore Hannah Yoder. Kreutz earned fourth and sixth place finishes at the Conference USA Championships a year ago and owns CSUB all-time top five scores in both events.

“We have lots of new people, so it will be interesting to see how they perform in this environment (this weekend),” said Skehan. “Regardless of the competition, we want to see if we can race tenaciously and get up and go after it. And can we race effectively, cleanly and hard six times in one day?”