Behind victories by junior Heath Ogawa and seniors Lily McCarthy and David Bunting, the Lake Forest College swimming and diving teams each sit in second place after day one of three at the 2018 Midwest Conference Championship Meet at Grinnell College.
Ogawa earned a conference record 567.70 points as the Foresters took first and second place in the 1-meter diving event. Senior Matthew Demirs was the runner-up with 399.25 points. The competitors performed their first eight dives in the early afternoon after the completion of the prelims of the swimming events and the final three after the 200-freestyle relay in the evening finals session. On the women's side sophomore Lizzie Johns tallied a career-high 400.30 points to place second off the 3-meter board and classmate Victoria Miller's 316.40 points were good for fifth place.
Prior to the diving both Forester 200-freestyle relay teams posted runner-up finishes, the men in 1:25.63 and the women in 1:39.84. Bunting, junior Blake Rhodes, and freshmen Ethan Hare and Nathan Ulm made up the men's team and the women's was comprised of sophomores Hannah Stinson and Kelsey Mitchell and freshmen Sarah Truxton and Susan Guo.
Freshman Max Rowland put his name among the best in team history during his first finals swim at the conference meet, finishing second in the 500-freestyle in 4:44.52, which ranks him fifth in team annals. Senior Landon Longfield posted an eighth-place finish and time of 4:55.90 while freshman Austin Dooyema was 11th in 4:59.72. Senior Lily McCarthy, a two-time MWC champion in the 1650-freestyle, added a 500-freestyle title to her resumé and her time of 5:07.38 moves her up from fifth to fourth on the program's all-time list. Fellow senior Toni Corbani was sixth in the race in 5:25.88 and Mitchell earned 10th place with a time of 5:27.48.
Bunting made it back-to-back victories for the Foresters when he touched the wall first in the men's 200-IM. It was his first career title in an individual event and his time of 1:55.86 places him fifth in team history. Freshman Evan Weller was fifth (1:58.42) and Ulm sixth (1:58.55) in the A-final and freshman Ryan Casseday earned 11th place with his performance in the B-final. Three Lake Forest swimmers placed in the women's race, led by sophomore Rachel Trevillian in fourth with a time of 2:16.27. Senior Brigit Dunne (2:18.06) and sophomore Ani Karagianis (2:18.34) were sixth and seventh, respectively.
The final individual event of Friday night's finals session was the 50-freestyle, where four men and five women scored points for the Foresters. Rhodes (21.93 seconds) and Hare (21.95) were the top two men in fifth and sixth, respectively. Junior Frederick Weichmann placed 14th in 22.61 seconds and sophomore Cole Ragan Scully 14th in 22.82. Guo was the only Lake Forest woman in the A-final and she finished fifth in 24.92 seconds. Truxton won the B-final (ninth overall) in 25.29 seconds and freshman Corynn Christjansen was next in 25.42. Stinson placed 12th (25.53) and freshman Fallon Longfield 15th (26.16).
Weichmann, Rowland, Ulm, and Bunting finished third in the men's 400-medley relay with a time of 3:33.48. The women's race was the last of the night and Dunne, Christjansen, Trevillian, and McCarthy were the runners-up in 4:06.57.
The Lake Forest men amassed 221 points and trail Grinnell by just 20 after the first of three days of competition. Ripon College is a distant third with 133 points. The Forester women finished Friday with 216 points while Grinnell accumulated 301. Lawrence University is third with 148.
Saturday's morning prelims begin at 10:00 and the evening finals are scheduled for 5:30.
