Forester Women Finish First, Men Second at Monmouth Invite

Photo by Abby King
Photo by Abby King

Senior Lily McCarthy won a pair of individual events to help the Lake Forest College women's swim team win the Monmouth College Invite on Saturday. The Forester men finished second in the four-team competition.

McCarthy touched the wall first in the 200-freestyle in 2:03.24 and in the 500-freestyle with a time of 5:22.94. She also swam the third leg of the Foresters' victorious 400-freestyle relay that finished in 3:51.82.

Lake Forest earned a victory in the first women's event of the day, the 200-medley relay. Senior Brigit Dunne and freshmen Corynn Christjansen, Susan Guo, and Sarah Truxton gradually pulled away from runner-up Grinnell College and their time of 1:56.61 was 1.34 seconds ahead of the Pioneers.

McCarthy's win in the 200-freestyle was next and Christjansen placed second in the same race with a time of 2:04.40. Guo and Truxton also turned in a 1-2 finish in the 50-freestlye in 25.61 and 26.00 seconds, respectively. Guo was victorious again in the 100-butterfly with a time of 1:00.52.

The first of three wins for the Forester men came in the 100-freestlye, where junior David Bunting prevailed with a time of 49.75 seconds. Christjansen made it a Lake Forest sweep in the event, taking the women's race in 57.52 seconds.

The next event was the 500-freestyle and the Foresters came away with another sweep. Freshman Max Rowland's time of 5:03.73 was nearly nine seconds faster than the runner-up in the men's race and McCarthy won the women's by more than six seconds.

Lake Forest closed out the meet with a pair of comeback victories in the 400-freestyle relay. Freshmen Ethan Hare and Nathan Ulm were followed by senior Landon Longfield and Bunting in the men's race. The Foresters trailed by nearly a half-second after three legs but Bunting was almost a second better than the anchor from Grinnell and came away with the win in 3:20.56. Christjansen, Truxton, McCarthy, and Guo won the women's race in 3:51.82 but trailed Grinnell by 1.27 seconds at the 300 mark. Guo caught the Pioneers' fourth swimmer and took the race by two-tenths of a second.

The Foresters' 142 points on the women's side were 15 more than Grinnell. Illinois College was third with 67.5 and Monmouth fourth with 62.5. The Grinnell men won with 147 points and Lake Forest had 126. Monmouth earned third place with 78 points and Illinois College was fourth with 60.

After facing three Midwest Conference teams on Saturday, the Foresters will travel to another for next Saturday's Lawrence Invite. The meet will begin at 10:00 a.m.