Freshman Alec Pittman posted a victory in the 1650-freestyle as the Lake Forest College swimming and diving teams competed at the Carthage Classic over the weekend. The Forester men placed third and the women sixth at the 10-team event.
Pittman's time of 16:27.61 in his first collegiate 1650 on thursday was five seconds better than the runner-up and ranks him second in program history. Fellow freshmen Aaron Helms and Sebastian Wagoner also finished in the top five in the event with times of 16:41.06 and 16:42.10, respectively.
Pittman also turned in one of the team's top performances on Friday, finishing fourth in the 500-freestyle in 4:49.33. Wagoner was just .04 seconds behind him in fifth place. Both swimmers added a fourth-place finish on Saturday with Pittman completing the 400-IM in 4:16.52 and Wagoner posting a time of 1:47.80 in the 200-freestyle. Helms was even better on Saturday, finishing as the runner-up in the 200-butterfly with a time of 1:57.58.
The Forester men had several other swimmers place among the top six in at least one individual event. Sophomore Nathan Ulm was fourth in Friday's 100-butterfly (54.54 seconds) and sixth-place finishes on Saturday were registered by Rowland in the 400-IM (4:19.35), senior Frederick Weichmann in the 100-backstroke (55.01), and sophomore Evan Weller in the 200-butterfly (2:04.45). The team's top relay finish was third by Wagoner, freshman Graeme Witte, Ulm, and senior Blake Rhodes in the 400-freestyle, the final event of the weekend. They completed the race in 3:18.81.
On the women's side junior Rachel Trevillian posted third-place finishes in Saturday's 400-IM (4:49.47) and 200-butterfly (2:12.27). Fellow junior Ani Karagianis was sixth in Friday's 500-freestyle in 5:30.72 as were sophomore Fallon Longfield in the 100-backstroke (1:02.11), sophomore Susan Guo in the 200-freestyle (1:59.41), and freshman Kerry Mullen in the 50-freestyle (25.11) on Saturday.
While the swimming events were contested at Carthage, the meet's diving competition was conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Forester senior Heath Ogawa remained undefeated on the year by winning the 1-meter with 470.20 points and prevailing off the 3-meter board with a score of 480.35. Lake Forest's top diver on the women's side was junior Victoria Miller, who was fifth in the 1-meter event (315.80) and seventh in the 3-meter competition (264.70).
Carthage placed first and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater second in the men's and women's team standings. The Forester men were a solid third while the women finished just behind Illinois Wesleyan University, Carroll University, and Oshkosh.
It was the final meet of the fall semester for Lake Forest. The team's next competition will be a dual meet at Soka University in California on Saturday, January 5, during the team's training trip.
