The Lake Forest College swimming & diving teams placed third at Carthage College's TYR/CollegeSwimming.com Classic on Friday and Saturday. Sophomore Becky Shaak broke her own meet record in the 1650-freestyle and also led off the Foresters' victorious 800-freestyle relay.
Shaak's 1650 time of 17:40.88 was 0.34 seconds faster than the meet record she posted last year. She was also the runner-up in the 200-IM (2:13.23) and 400-IM (4:43.45).
The Foresters' only other individual event winner was sophomore Alex Marks in the 200-breaststroke (2:12.44). He was in sixth place and trailed the leader by more than two-and-a-half seconds at the race's midpoint. He moved into third place but was still 1.5 seconds behind the leader with 50 yards to go but edged him out by just three-hundredths of a second in the end. Marks was also the runner-up in the 100-breaststroke (1:00.15) and placed 15th in the 100-freestyle (51.46).
Shaak teamed with junior Emily Watts, sophomore Kelsey Hoeper, and freshman Jill Pastick to win the 800-free relay in 8:05.76, more than seven seconds faster than the second-place team. Lake Forest's women finished second in the 200-freestlye relay (1:42.20), and 400-medley relay (4:09.31), and 400-freestyle relay (3:40.91).
The Forester men's relay teams placed third in the 200-freestyle (1:29.23), 400-medley (3:35.53), and 200-medley (1:38.12). Both medley relays finished within 0.5 seconds of the best times in program history.
Seven other Foresters posted a combined 13 top-five finishes. Hoeper and Watts accomplished the feat in the same three events. Hoeper was second in the 100-freestyle (54.34), fifth in the 200-freestyle (2:02.28), and third in the 50-freestyle (25.52). Watts placed third in the 100 (54.69), fourth in the 200 (2:01.57), and fifth in the 50 (25.77).
Senior Mike Mackin was the runner-up in the 100-backstroke (53.43) and finished fourth in the 200-backstroke (1:58.96). Freshman Garr Punnett placed fifth in both the 200-backstroke (2:01.21) and 100-butterfly (53.77).
The other three to place among the top five in one event were senior Whitney Hales in the 200-breaststroke (4th in 2:34.76), junior Amy Finn in the 1650-freestyle (4th in 18:59.16), and freshman Sarah Stoklosa in the 200-butterfly (5th in 2:24.73).
Carthage, whose women are ranked 11th in the nation and the men 20th, won both team competitions. St. Olaf College's men, who placed second in the team standings, are ranked 21st in the country. The Oles were also second on the women's side.
Lake Forest will not compete again until taking part in the Illinois-Michigan Quadrangular at Hope College on Saturday, January 15.
