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Three Scots claim four titles at conference meet
Release Date: February 17, 2009
MONMOUTH, Ill. —
The Monmouth
College swim team may not have won the Midwest Conference Swimming
and Diving Championships last weekend in Grinnell, Iowa, but they
did crown four individual champions and broke 17 school records en
route to the men’s third consecutive second-place finish and the
women’s second straight fifth-place finish – less than 80 points out
of second.
All four champions
for the Scots at the three-day meet were freshmen.
Andrew Wright
(Quincy, Ill./Quincy) brought home two league crowns. On Friday,
Wright swam a personal-best to win the 500-yard freestyle by just
under three seconds (4:47.11). The freestyle specialist then took
first in the 1650- on Sunday afternoon. He swam a school record
(16:38.09) to win by 12 seconds.
Sandwiched in
between Wright’s titles was Josh Dunn’s (Brookfield, Ill./Lyons
Township) winning performance in the 200- freestyle Saturday night.
Dunn swam a school record (1:45.21) to out-touch Wright at the
finish by a mere eight-tenths of a second. Joe Testolin was fourth,
four seconds back.
Krysta Sparks
(Montrose, Colo./Montrose) became only the second woman in Fighting
Scots’ history to win a conference crown – Anne Lane picked up two
titles last season. Sparks broke her own school record in winning
the 200- breaststroke (2:38.32) by more than two full seconds. The
time was also a Grinnell pool record. She also swam a school record
in the 100- breaststroke (1:08.37) to place second and her 200-
individual medley time (2:16.35) for third was also a school record.
The conference
champions weren’t the only Scots to rewrite the Monmouth record
book. Harrison Heilman set two new marks, setting the new high mark
with a third-place time in the 200- IM (2:03.24) and posting the new
standard with a second-place time in the 400- IM (4:28.59).
Dunn led the
charge in the 100- backstroke for the men, taking third with a
school record time (55.19). Heilman was fifth and Testolin was
sixth.
While the men were
setting six new records, the women replaced 11 top times. Rachel
Holm set the new Scots’ standard in the 100- butterfly where she was
second (1:01.19) and in the 50- freestyle (25.83), placing third.
She just missed the school mark in the 200- butterfly to place
second. Her time (2:14.94) was just .04 off the school record.
Rachel Buckham
clocked a Scots’ record in the 200- backstroke where she was second
(2:16.97) and she took third in the 100- backstroke and eighth in
the 500- freestyle.
The relay teams had
their share of record-setting performances. The women’s 200-
freestyle relay team of Buckham, Holm, Jaime Schingoethe and
Colleen Zumpf set the new time to beat (1:44.77) while finishing
fourth. Sparks joined Buckham, Holm and Zumpf on the record-setting
400- medley relay (4:13.06) to take third. That foursome also set
the new school mark in the 200- medley relay (1:55.25), placing
third. Kendra Kuehl hooked up with Buckham, Schingoethe and Sparks
for a school record in the 800- freestyle relay (8:33.56) where they
picked up fifth-place. The 400- freestyle relay of Holm, Zumpf,
Buckham and Kuehl captured another fifth and another record
(3:51.82).
The men set one
record in the relays. The foursome of Dunn, John Kaiser, Steve
Collins and Tom Pederson swam a school record in the 200- freestyle
relay (1:28.68) to place second.
No records, but
scoring swims came from the rest of the weekend. The 400- medley
relay team of Dunn, Kaiser, Kevin Satler and Steve Collins were in
second place, less than a second off the winning time. Pederson
joined Dunn, Satler and Kaiser in swimming to a third-place finish
in the 200- medley relay and the 400- freestyle team of Dunn,
Collins, Wright and Kaiser finished in third.
Diver Jack
Clifford recorded a career-best in the diving well. The junior
placed third in the 1-meter, 11-dive competition with 349.95 points,
just missing the runner up spot by less than 30 points.
The men also had some
near misses in the individual swimming events.
Dunn was out-touched
at the finish to place second in the 100- freestyle. Josh Van Swol
just missed winning the 200- backstroke. His second place time
(2:03.12) was just two seconds off the winning pace. Satler took
second in the 200- breaststroke and his swim in the 100-
breaststroke placed him seventh.
Kaiser picked up
thirds in the 100- and 200- butterfly. Collins took third in the
400- IM and was fifth in the 200- IM where Kaiser finished seventh.
Pederson recorded a fifth-place in the 50- freestyle. Testolin and
Jim Travnik finished 7-8 in the 500- freestyle. Ed Novak and Travnik
were 7-8 in the 1650- freestyle.
Rounding out the
women’s marquee performances were: Zumpf, fifth in the 100-
breaststroke; Kuehl, seventh in the 200- IM; and Schingoethe a
seventh-place finish in the 200- freestyle.
The Scots hope to
improve for next year’s meet and will have plenty of firepower
returning. The men lose just two seniors and the women’s team has
all underclassmen.
Men's
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Women's Swimming
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