Sophomore Max Rowland contributed to two of Lake Forest's four victories and broke a school record on Friday at the 2019 Midwest Conference Championship Meet. The Forester men lead host Grinnell College by just nine points and the women are in second place after the first of three days of competition.
Rowland was joined by fellow sophomore Nathan Ulm, freshman Graeme Witte, and senior Blake Rhodes on Lake Forest's victorious 200-freestyle relay team. Their time of 1:25.61 edged out runner-up Grinnell by just four-tenths of a second in the first men's event of Friday night's finals session.
The men's relay win followed up a program record set by the women in their 200-freestyle relay. Sophomore Susan Guo and freshmen Sarah Burchart, Kylie Morgan, and Kerry Mullen finished in 1:38.30, which was good for second place in the race but first in team history by just .02 seconds.
The final three rounds of the women's 1-meter and men's 3-meter diving competition was next and the Foresters had the winner in both events. Senior Heath Ogawa prevailed off the higher board at the conference meet for the fourth year in a row and his 528.05 points were nearly 180 more than the runner-up. Junior Lizzie Johns took the lead on her eighth and final dive in the prelims and pulled away in the evening to defend her title in the event with a score of 388.15. Classmate Victoria Miller was fifth with 333.15 points and freshmen McKinley Scheppler (318.85) and Missy Bryan (298.55) were eighth and ninth, respectively.
The 500-freestyle was the session's first individual swimming event and Lake Forest had three swimmers in the women's A-final and four in the men's. Guo placed third in the women's race with a time of 5:16.08 while junior Kelsey Mitchell was fifth in 5:24.35 and junior Ani Karagianis seventh in 5:27.10. On the men's side, Rowland's time of 4:38.81 broke the previous school record by nearly two seconds and led a 1-2-3 finish that helped give the Foresters the lead in the meet. Freshman Aaron Helms was the runner-up and his 4:41.66 ranks him fourth in team annals while classmate Alec Pittman's third-place time of 4:42.04 places him fifth in the event in program history. Freshman Sebastian Wagoner completed his 20 lengths of the pool in 4:48.70 and was fifth.
Trevillian was back in the pool for the 200-IM and finished fifth with a time of 2:15.25 while Morgan was eighth in 2:16.66. Ulm's 1:57.61 was good for third in the men's race, which also saw Forester sophomores Evan Weller 1:59.18) and Thomas Anderson (2:00.80) place fifth and seventh, respectively.
Mullen added her name to the list of the fastest swimmers in program history when she completed the 50-freestyle in just 24.26 seconds. That time placed her second in the field and in team history. Borchart finished eighth in 25.33 seconds. Rhodes and Witte, respectively, were seventh and eighth on the men's side in 21.91 and 22.13 seconds.
The 400-medley relay was Friday's final event and the Foresters finished third in both races. Sophomore Fallon Longfield led off for the women and was followed by Borchart, Trevillian, and Mullen. They posted a time of 4:05.86. Weller, Wagoner, Ulm, and Witte completed the men's relay in 3:31.86.
The Lake Forest men tallied 245 points on the day while Grinnell earned 236, twice third-place Monmouth College's total. The Grinnell women have 321 points and the Foresters 233. Lawrence University is third with 159.
All nine schools in the meet will return to the pool for Saturday morning's prelims, which will begin at 10:00. Champions in 14 more events will be crowned in the evening finals with the 200-medley relay starting things off at 5:30.
