The Lake Forest College men's swimming & diving team was defeated 177-82 at Olivet Nazarene University on Saturday while the women's squad split a double dual, defeating Butler University 154-102 but falling 176-74 to Olivet Nazarene. Forester sophomore Drake Nickell turned in an exciting victory in the 200-freestyle.
Nickell was the first of four finishers within eight-tenths of a second of each other. His time of 1:47.20 was .26 seconds better than the runner-up and .38 seconds ahead of third. Forester freshman David Bunting was fourth in 1:47.99.
While Nickell's victory was Lake Forest's only first-place finish of the day, several Foresters were close, beginning with sophomore Lauren Dalecky in the 100-breaststroke. Her runner-up time of 1:11.28 was less than a half-second behind the winner and she later placed second in the 200-breaststroke in 2:37.51. Freshman Martell Madison was second in the 200-butterfly in 2:14.87 and classmate Simona Kurta's time of 1:00.58 was just .69 seconds behind the winner in the 100-butterfly.
On the men's side Forester sophomore Travis Johnson was second in the 50-freestyle in 22.08 seconds and fellow sophomore Orion Huey was the runner-up in the 200-backstroke with a time of 2:01.64. Sam Freedberg, another sophomore, was second in the 400-IM with a time of 4:16.79.
Facing much more difficult competition than in past seasons, the Forester women posted a dual meet record of 3-4 while the men were 2-4. Both squads will not compete next weekend in advance of the Midwest Conference Championships at Grinnell College February 13-15. The Forester men will be looking to defend their conference title while the women are coming off runner-up finishes each of the last two years.