Lake Forest freshman Heath Ogawa posted the highest 3m-diving score in Midwest Conference history and earned one of the Foresters' four victories on Saturday at the MWC Championship Meet. Host Grinnell College leads both the men's and women team standings while the Lake Forest men are one point back in second place and the women rank fourth.
The Foresters began Saturday's finals session by claiming the title in the men's 200-medley relay, which sophomore Jakobi McClellan, senior Kristofer Korth, and juniors Orion Huey and Travis Johnson completed in 1:34.73. They finished nearly a full second ahead of runner-up Grinnell with the second-fastest time in program history. The win also gave the Foresters, who entered the day just a point-and-a-half behind the Pioneers, a narrow lead in the standings.
In the women's race Forester juniors Emily Bowens and Lauren Dalecky combined with sophomores Jessica Cline and Magdalen Kroeger to finish fourth with a time of 1:52.30.
Ogawa entered the final three rounds of diving with a small lead but extended it more than 27 points during the finals and final score of 567.20 broke the previous league record by more than 16 points and bested the program record before 2015-16 by 80 points. Sophomore Matt Demirs finished third in the event with a career-high 426.05 points and he continues to rank fourth in team history.
Forester freshman Rachael Purgerson scored 371.00 points in the women's 1-meter event, which was good for fourth place.
Grinnell had five swimmers in the men's 400-IM to Lake Forest's three and regained the lead in the standings. Korth was the runner-up with a time of 4:10.38 while fellow senior Armel Cazedepats finished fifth in 4:18.84 and sophomore Ian Murphy seventh in 4:23.62.
The Forester men turned a 14.5-point deficit into an 18.5-point lead in the 100-butterfly. Huey won the event with a time of 51.87 seconds and sophomore James Winkler was second in 52.62. Junior Virgil Thomas placed fifth with a time of 53.71 seconds.
Sophomore Simona Kurta's time of 59.62 seconds in the women's 100-butterfly was just six-tenths of a second off her career-best and good for sixth place on Saturday. Sophomore Brigit Dunne placed 13th and her fastest time of the day was 1:02.25 in the morning prelims.
The Pioneers outscsored Lake Forest by 64 points in the 200-freestyle, where the home team had six swimmers in the A-final and the Foresters two. Junior Travis Johnson placed fifth in the event with a time of 1:44.40 while sophomore David Bunting was seventh in 1:44.69. Junior Sean Flanigan was 15th with a time of 1:53.74. All three Foresters swam just slightly faster in the prelims.
There were also three Lake Forest women in the 200-freestyle, where sophomore Lily McCarthy placed fourth in 1:58.29 and classmate Toni Corbani was fifth in 1:58.76. Sophomore Magdalen Kroeger finished 15th with a time of 2:03.21.
The top two men's teams combined to have eight of the top nine finishers in the 100-breaststroke. Led by junior Sam Freedberg's third-place finish, the Foresters outscored the Pioneers by six points in the event. Freedberg's time of 59.04 seconds earned him fifth place in program history in the event. Lake Forest juniors Chris Martinez (59.13 seconds), Ryan Keast (59.23), and Josh Georgeff (1:00.18) were the next three swimmers to touch the wall after Freedberg.
Dalecky finished the women's 100-breaststroke less than a second off her school record at 1:07.47, which placed fourth on Saturday. Cline also competed in the A-final and finished seventh in 1:10.82.
Lake Forest out-numbered Grinnell 4-1 and outscored them by 44.5 points in the men's 100-backstroke to regain the lead. Thomas won the event from lane eight in 53.38 seconds and McClellan was second in 53.65. Freshman Frederick Weichmann was seventh in 55.17 seconds and sophomore Landon Longfield eighth in 55.29.
Bowens came within one-third of a second of her career-best in the women's 100-backstroke and was the runner-up in exactly 59 seconds. Dunne finished fifth with a time of 1:00.97.
Cazedepats, Bunting, Korth, and Martinez posted the second-fastest 800-freestyle relay time in program history at 7:00.12 but still finished second to Grinnell in the event on Saturday.
Kurta, McCarthy, Corbani, and Kroeger finished third in the women's 800-freestyle relay with a time of 8:01.68.
The Grinnell men finished day two with 612.5 points, one more than the Foresters. Carroll University is third with 320.
The Pioneer women lead with 680 points and Carroll is second with 433. Lawrence University has tallied 330 points, seven more than Lake Forest. Monmouth College is fifth with 209.
Sunday morning's prelims will begin at 9:00 and the finals will start at 4:00 p.m.
