The Monmouth College swim team performed well  again at the Midwest Conference Championship and further established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the MWC.

The conference meet was held in Appleton, Wis., and began on Friday, Feb. 15 and concluded on Feb. 17. Overall, the men grabbed an impressive second place finish, while the women finished in a respectable fifth place.

The athletes were not the only ones who were rewarded for their hard work this season, though, as Monmouth’s head coach, Keith Crawford, was named Midwest Conference Men’s Coach of the Year. Crawford earned the honor for the second consecutive year, and he has led the Scots for just four years.

Crawford said he was excited about the honor, and the way the Scots performed as a unit in the meet.

“First, it means that my team performed well,” Crawford said. “Second, it is an honor to know that I am well respected among my fellow coaches, and they recognize the positive things taking place in my program.”

The men again finished behind Grinnell College, while the women missed fourth place by just eight points behind Beloit College. Together, the men’s and women’s team set 10 school records, while 34 individuals recorded personal-best times.

Monmouth’s depth shined through in the meet, and nearly every Scot stepped up and contributed.

Sophomore Anne Lane swam tremendously, as she recorded three women’s records for Monmouth College and two conference titles in individual races, including the 200 butterfly (2.14:90) and the 400 individual medley (4.48:61).

On the men’s side, senior Kurt Niemeier and freshman Kevin Raske claimed conference titles in individual races. Niemeier defended his 50-yard freestyle record of last year with a time of 22.11. Raske swam impressively and finished first in the 500 freestyle. Raske set a Monmouth record when he recorded a time of 4:49.75 in the event, and he went on to break his own record in the finals when he recorded a time of 4:45.39.

The men’s team also claimed a conference title in the men’s 200 medley relay race, as Raske and Niemeier were joined by sophomores Jon Peterson and John Kaiser to finish the race in 1:40.16, which was also good enough for a school record.

Many other individuals swam well for the men, including senior Dan Campione, junior Kevin Satler, juniors Jim Travnik, sophomores Stephen Whittle, Jack Clifford, Harrison Heilman and Josh Van Swol and freshmen Tom Pederson and Chad Rowland.

In addition to Niemeier and Campione, Ryan Bouwman is the only senior the Scots will lose to graduation.

Satler said the Scots performed well in the meet, and the final score would have been even closer if they had divers competing.

“Our team had a lot of success with our relays and our freestyle events,” Satler said. “Grinnell beat us in overall score, but we had them beat in the relays. It was exciting to have our team touch out Grinnell by less than a second in a couple of the relays; our top swimmers out swam their top swimmers. If we just had as many divers as them, it would have been a really close meet.”

Crawford said he was happy with the team’s performance and the men achieved their goals for the conference meet.

“The men had the goal of significantly closing the gap between us and Grinnell; a year ago, they finished 418 points ahead of us, and this year we brought that down to 194,” Crawford said. “Of that 194, we lost 117 points in diving. We also had the goal of placing more people in championship finals. Last year we had 13 top six performances, and this year we had 18 top six performances. We also won our first ever relay on the men’s side.”

Monmouth also had a strong performance on the women’s side of the pool. Joining Lane, seniors Meagan Wentzlaff and Heather Plum and sophomore Lauren Nelson had a strong finish in the 800 freestyle relay, and they went on to finish in fourth place (8:46.16).

Other major contributors for the women were sophomores Jessica Houser and Meaghan Gritzenback and freshman Kayce DeRoo.

“I think the team was really excited that we had such a great finish; it really shows all the hard work we put in to this year,” Wentzlaff said.

In addition to Wentzlaff and Plum, Jessica DeMink is the only other senior on the women’s squad.

Crawford said the women finished approximately how he anticipated in the meet.

“The women’s meet was wide open, and I thought going in we could place any where between third and eighth,” Crawford said. “The total gap between fourth and eighth was 28 points. Our fifth place finish was about what I expected; we had our first ever conference champion on the women’s side with Anne Lane winning both the 400 IM and 200 fly.”

Wentzlaff said she enjoyed her time at the conference meet, and she will miss swimming for Monmouth College in future years:

“I was really happy that I got to experience this with my good friends and the senior swimmers.  I will miss swimming at the collegiate level and having an excuse not to shave my legs for 4 months. I just want to wish the best of luck to the girl’s team next year.”  

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