The Lake Forest College swimming & diving teams are at Grinnell College this weekend competing in the 2015 Midwest Conference Championship Meet. The Forester men lead the hosts by 35 points after the second of three days while the women remain in second place. Seniors Christina and Sarah Peker posted the highest 3-meter diving scores in league history on Saturday.
The first event in Saturday's finals session was the women's 200-medley relay. Senior Kelsie Miller, sophomore Lauren Dalecky, and freshmen Evelyn Johnson and Victoria Karker finished second in the race but set a school record with a time of 1:48.02, nearly a full second faster than the previous mark set last season.
Freshman Jakobi McClellan, junior Kristofer Korth, and sophomores Sam Freedberg and Travis Johnson were also second in the men's 200-medley relay with the third-fastest time in program history.
The Foresters' first victory of the day was posted by senior Christina Peker in 3-meter diving and her sister Sarah Pekar was the runner-up. They finished with 518.90 and 516.95 points, respectively, the highest scores in the history of the MWC and Russell K. Osgood Pool. It finished off Christina Pekar's third consecutive sweep of the diving events.
Another school record fell in the men's 1-meter competition, where the 431.25 points recorded by freshman Matt Demirs were nearly eight points more than the previous mark. Fellow freshman Mitchell Bartko was fifth in the event with a score of 317.20.
Freshman Madison Martell was the Foresters' only participant in the finals of the 400-IM and her time of 4:43.17 was good for sixth place.
Four Lake Forest swimmers placed among the top six in the men's 400-IM, led by Freedberg, whose winning time of 3:57.43 broke his own conference record by more than three-and-a-half seconds. It was also a pool record and an NCAA B-Cut qualifying mark. Korth finished third in 4:08.52, sophomore Armel Cazedepats fifth in 4:18.50, and freshman Ian Murphy sixth in 4:19.45. The four Foresters outscored Grinnell's four swimmers in the A-Final by nine points, breaking the teams' tie entering the event.
Miller added her name to the program's top-5 list in the 100-butterfly, where her fourth-place time on Saturday ranks her third in team history.
Lake Forest earned 51 points in the men's 100-butterfly, one more than Grinnell. Sophomore Virgil Thomas place third in 52.47 seconds, just ahead of classmates Orion Huey and Drake Nickell, who finished fourth in 52.65 and fifth in 52.77, respectively.
Karker, who set a conference record and posted an NCAA B-cut qualifying time in Friday's 200-IM, accomplished the same feat in the 200-freestyle on Saturday. Her time of 1:51.38 won by nearly four seconds and broke the school and conference record by 1.7 seconds. Freshman Lily McCarthy placed seventh in 1:58.85, classmate Toni Corbani was 15th in 2:03.56, and sophomore Lily Thorsen finished 13th in 2:04.18. Corbani and Thorsen posted times of 2:01.07 and 2:01.92, respectively, in the morning prelims.
Lake Forest freshman David Bunting finished third in the men's 200-freestyle with a time of of 1:44.54. Seniors Brock Moné and Mitchell Reiner were also in the A-Final and placed fifth in 1:46.91 and sixth in 1:47.26, respectively. Sophomore Sean Flanigan won the B-Final to earn 10th place overall with a time of 1:48.88. Grinnell, however, had four swimmers in the A-Final and outscored the Foresters 70-59 in the event to take a one-point lead in the meet.
Dalecky was one of three Foresters in the A-Final of the women's 100-breaststroke and she placed second with a time of 1:07.89. Freshman Emily Cline was sixth in 1:11.31 and senior Jessica Hanch ninth in 1:12.25. Freshman Emma Levine's B-Final time of 1:16.20 was tied for 13th place.
The Foresters regained the lead in the men's standings after the 100-breaststroke. In his second individual event of the day, Korth won in 57.92 seconds, just .35 seconds slower than the conference record he set a year ago. Freshman Josaiah Clark was third in 59.16 seconds and sophomore Chris Martinez placed fourth in 59.62.
Evelyn Johnson turned in Lake Forest's fifth victory of the day in the 100-backstroke and her time of 58.04 seconds ranks her second in program history. Miller finished third in 58.77 seconds, sophomore Emily Bowens fourth in 59.09, and freshman Maggie Kroeger eighth in 1:00.46. Bowens' time was a career-best but Johnson bumped her from third to fourth in team annals.
With four participants in the 100-backstroke A-Final, the Lake Forest men continued to add to their lead. McClellan was the runner-up with a finals time of 52.70 and his 52.38 in the prelims ranks him fourth in school history. Sophomore Virgil Thomas placed third in 52.81 seconds, freshman George Hu sixth in 54.67 seconds, and Travis Johnson seventh in 54.82 seconds. They combined for 66 points, 20 more than the Pioneers.
The final event of the day was the 800-freestyle relay and the Forester women's team was made up entirely of freshmen. Kurta, McCarthy, Martell, and Karker finished with a time of 7:44.80, which would have been a conference record had Grinnell not won the event in 7:42.71. They settled for the fastest time in school history and have three more years to improve on it.
The Lake Forest men were also second to Grinnell in the 800-freestyle relay and the time of 7:01.00 posted by Nickell, Bunting, Korth, and Cazedepats ranks second in program history.
The Forester women finished day two with 538.5 points, trailing only Grinnell's 763. Carroll University is third with 351 points and Lawrence fourth with 318.
Lake Forest's 709 points on the men's side are 35 ahead of Grinnell. Carroll's men are also in third place with 381 points and Monmouth College fourth with 291.
Sunday morning's prelims will begin at 9:00 and the finals on the final day of competition will start at 4:00.
