Foresters Compete on Two of Three Days at Phoenix Fall Classic

Photo by Maxie Mottlowitz
Photo by Maxie Mottlowitz

Sophomore Heath Ogawa won both diving events at the University of Chicago's Phoenix Fall Classic over the weekend.

Ogawa's 484.45 points in Saturday's 1-meter competition was 51 more than the runner-up's score. He came back on Sunday with a victorious 3-meter score of 542.75, nearly 90 points more than the second-place competitor and within 25 of the school record he set at last year's Midwest Conference Championship Meet.

Eleven performances by Forester swimmers earned them spots in the evening finals, beginning with senior Orion Huey's 200-backstroke on Saturday. His time of 1:59.35 in the B-final was good for a 13th-place finish in the highly-competitive field. Fellow senior James Haney also qualified for the B-final in the 200-butterfly on Saturday and his time of 2:02.68 in the evening was good for 16th place.

Sunday's first finals event was the women's 400-IM and Lake Forest freshman Ani Karagianis was 14th with a time of 5:04.57. Junior David Bunting made the next finals appearance by a Forester and he was also 14th with a time of 1:48.29 in the 200-freestlye. Lake Forest turned in another 14th-place finish in the 200-breastroke when senior Ryan Keast completed the race in 2:23.35.

The highest placings by Forester swimmers at the meet came in the 100-backstroke, where senior Emily Bowens was 11th in the women's race in 1:01.99. Junior Brigit Dunne also swam in the event's B-final and finished 15th in 1:02.84. Lake Forest had three representatives in the men's 100-backstroke B-final with senior Virgil Thomas matching Bowens in 11th with a time of 55.24 seconds, sophomore Frederick Weichmann finishing 14th in 56.97, and freshman Zebulon Thorsen placing 16th in 57.59.

Huey became the only member of the team to compete in the finals both Saturday and Sunday when he qualified in the 50-freestyle and placed 15th in 22.19 seconds.

The Foresters' best finish in a relay was 10th. Huey, Bunting, senior Chris Martinez, and Thomas took that place in the 800-freestyle relay with a time of 7:20.28 and senior Sam Freedberg, Bunting, senior Travis Johnson, and Huey matched that 10th-place finish in the 400-freestyle relay in 3:17.93.

The Lake Forest men were 10th out of 14 teams with 102 points while the women placed eighth out of a dozen schools with 141 points.

After taking next weekend off from competition, the Foresters will close out the fall semester at the Carthage Classic the following Friday and Saturday. The meet will begin at 9:00 a.m. both days.