Forester Women Win, Men Fall at Illinois Tech while Divers Compete at UIC

Photo by Abby King
Photo by Abby King

Freshman Susan Guo out-touched the 200-freestyle relay anchor from Illinois Institute of Technology to win the final event and give the Lake Forest College women's swimmers a 106-101 victory over the Scarlet Hawks on Saturday. The Forester men were defeated by Illinois Tech 108-91.

Guo, along with fellow freshman Corryn Christjansen and Sarah Truxton and senior Lily McCarthy finished the 200-freestlye in 1:46.59, just .37 seconds faster than their opponents. The Forester men made it a sweep of the event when senior David Bunting, freshmen Ethan Hare and Nathan Ulm, and junior Blake Rhodes won by nearly a second in 1:30.71.

The Lake Forest men also started their day with a victory in the 400-medley relay, where junior Frederick Weichman teamed with Hare, Ulm, and Bunting for a time of 3:41.21 and a three-and-a-half second win.

The Foresters also took the first five individual events, beginning with a triumph from sophomore Ani Karagianis in the 1000-freestyle. She completed the 40 lengths of the pool in 11:28.42 and just ahead of Lake Forest senior Toni Corbani, who placed second. Freshman Max Rowland gave the visitors a sweep in the event, taking the men's race by more than 40 seconds in 10:27.39. McCarthy was victorious in the women's 200-freestyle in 2:03.23 and Bunting won the men's race in 1:49.46. Stinson extended the streak to five events when she touched the wall first in the 50-freestyle in 26.81 seconds.

Guo added a victory in the 200-IM in 2:19.02 and Hare won the 100-freestyle in 50.52 seconds. Weichmann prevailed in the 100-backstroke with a time of 55.65 seconds and McCarthy turned in her second individual event win of the meet in the 500-freestyle, which she completed in 5:27.65.

Illinois Tech took the last three individual races of the day, setting up the decisive women's 200-freestyle relay.

It was the Foresters' final dual meet of the season and the women's team finished 3-3 and the men 2-4.

While the swimmers were racing at Illinois Tech, the Lake Forest divers were taking on NCAA Division I and Division III athletes at the UIC Diving Invite. Junior Heath Ogawa won the 12-man 3-meter event with 343.20 points but finished second in the 1-meter competition with a final score of 318.05. Senior Matt Demirs finished 11th off both boards. Sophomore Lizzie Johns placed ninth out of 21 women in both events, tallying 230.20 points off the 1-meter board and 211.50 in the 3-meter conpetition.

Lake Forest will have a weekend off from competition before traveling to Grinnell College for the 2018 Midwest Conference Championships February 16-18.