Senior Orion Huey contributed to three titles and a conference record on Friday, the first of three days of competition at the 2017 Midwest Conference Championships at Grinnell College. The Forester men and women are in second place in the team standings.
Lake Forest freshman Kelsey Mitchell and seniors Lily Thorsen, Emily Bowens, and Lauren Dalecky began Friday night's finals session with a runner-up finish and time of 1:39.12 in the women's 200-freestyle relay. They now rank third in program history in that event, just 0.47 seconds behind Grinnell College in the race and 0.8 seconds off the school record. Huey then anchored the Forester men's 200-freestyle relay, whose winning time of 1:24.25 is a new league record. Senior Travis Johnson, who is now part of four of the five fastest 200-freestyle relays in team history, led off and was followed by junior David Bunting, senior Sam Freedberg, and Huey. All four were faster than their counterparts from Grinnell, who was second in 1:26.46.
The final three dives in the women's 1-meter and men's 3-meter competition were next. Sophomore Heath Ogawa repeated as champion off the higher board and broke his own conference record with an 11-dive score of 581.20. Junior Matthew Demirs was the runner-up with 411.45 points. Freshmen Lizzie Johns was second on the women's side with 393.30 points while classmate Victoria Miller placed eight with a score of 321.55.
The Forester women and men each had three of the top eight finishers in the 500-freestyle. Junior Lily McCarthy's runner-up time of 5:09.36 in the women's race ranks her fifth in team history. Thorsen placed seventh in 5:21.18 and freshman Ani Karagianis eighth in 5:22.09. Seniors James Haney and Chris Martinez finished second and third, respectively, on the men's side with times of 4:45.33 and 4:48.53. Fellow senior Sean Flanigan was sixth in 4:53.38.
Freshman Rachel Trevillion was the only Forester woman to swim in either final in the 200-IM and she placed seventh with a time of 2:17.61. Huey and Freedberg were the top two finishers in the men's race with times of 1:54.34 and 1:54.51, respectively. Junior Landon Longfield placed eighth in 2:01.70.
Dalecky's first individual event of the weekend was the 50-freestyle, where she placed fifth in a career-best 24.82 seconds. Johnson was the runner-up on the men's side in 21.25 seconds but finished in a career-best 21.16 seconds in the morning prelims. Dalecky and Johnson continue to rank fifth and third, respectively, in team history. Bunting was also in the men's A final, where he placed seventh in 21.91 seconds.
Friday night's final event was the 400-medley relay. Bowens, Dalecky, Trevillion, and McCarthy were second in the women's race and their time of 4:00.54 ranks them fifth in team annals. Seniors Virgil Thomas and Ryan Keast teamed with Huey and Johnson to win the men's race and their 3:27.98 is fourth in school history.
Grinnell sits atop both team standings. The Pioneer women have earned 278.5 points in the meet's first six events. Lake Forest's 179 are a distant second and just 11 ahead of third-place Lawrence University. Ripon is fourth with 110 points, followed by Knox College (98.5), Monmouth (94), Illinois College (83), and Beloit College (53).
Grinnell's 261 points on the men's side are just 10 more than the Foresters have collected so far. Monmouth is in third place with 122 points while Illinois College (94), Ripon (90.5), Lawrence (89), Beloit (64.5), and Knox (47) round out the standings.
Saturday morning's prelims will begin at 10:00 and the finals at 5:30 in the evening. The three-day competition will conclude on Sunday.
