Junior Lily McCarthy defended her title in the 1650-freestyle to begin the finals session on the last day of the 2017 Midwest Conference Championships at Grinnell College.
McCarthy finished the longest event at the meet with a time of 17:55.14, completing the race 23 seconds faster than teammate and runner-up Ani Karagianis, a freshman who posted a time of 18:18.16. Senior James Haney placed third in the men's race in 16:29.45, slightly faster than the second-best mark in program history, which he already owned. Classmate Sean Flanigan was sixth in 17:08.88.
After winning the 100 on Saturday, senior Emliy Bowens nearly made it a sweep of the backstroke events but settled for second place in the 200 on Sunday. She completed the race in 2:06.06. Lake Forest had three of the top six finishers on the men's side, including senior Orion Huey, who successfully defended his title and broke his own school record in the event with a time of 1:51.14. Sophomore Frederick Weichmann was third in 1:57.29 and senior Virgil Thomas sixth in 1:58.90.
The Forester men put two swimmers in the championship final of the 100-freestyle, where senior Travis Johnson finished fifth in 47.57 seconds and junior David Bunting six just 0.03 seconds later.
Senior Lauren Dalecky finished off a sweep of the breaststroke events, taking the title in the 200 on Sunday. Her time of 2:24.15 won the race by more than four seconds and ranks her third in team history. A pair of seniors placed in the top four on the men's side with Ryan Keast earning runner-up honors with a time of 2:10.10 and Chris Martinez finishing fourth in 2:12.66. Freshman Jordan Jacob added a sixth-place finish with a time of 2:15.30.
The last individual event of the third and final day of competition was the gruelling 200-butterfly. Freshman Rachel Trevillian placed fourth on the women's side with a time of 2:14.05. Senior Sam Freedberg was second in the men's race, which he completed in 1:54.87. In his second event of the evening, Haney finished fourth with a time of 1:59.73.
As they did in each of the four previous relays at the meet, the Forester women placed second in the 400-freestyle on Sunday. Freshman Kelsey Mitchell led off and was followed by McCarthy, Dalecky, and Bowens. Their time of 3:37.12 ranks fifth in team history. Johnson, Bunting, Freedberg, and Huey closed out the competition successfully, winning the men's race by more than two seconds and setting a program record with a time of 3:07.10.
The 400-freestyle victory was the 13th championship and seventh school record of the weekend for the Foresters. The Lake Forest men took four of the five relays and the 200-freestyle relay team posting the fastest time in league history on Friday. Sophomore Heath Ogawa also set conference records in both diving events and was named MWC Men's Diver of the Year. Huey was the team's most accomplished swimmer on the weekend, winning two individual events and participating on all four relay victories. On the weekend the Foresters made 24 new or improved entries on the program's list of the top five performances in each event.
Grinnell won both the men's and women's team titles with 949 and 981.5 points, respectively. The Lake Forest men tallied 779 points on the weekend, more than third-place Monmouth College (336.5) and fourth-place Lawrence University (303.5) combined. Illinois College, Ripon College, Beloit College, and Knox College rounded out the standings. The Lawrence women finished with 572 points, edging out the Foresters by just 38. Ripon was fourth with 423 and was followed in order by Knox, Illinois College, Monmouth, and Beloit.
The 2017 MWC Championships were the final meet for a dozen Forester seniors and they combined for nearly 700 points over the course of the weekend.
