The Lake Forest College swimming and diving teams began competition at the 2023 Midwest Conference Championships at Grinnell College on Friday. The Forester women are atop the standings while the men are in third place after the first of meet's three days of events.
Friday's schedule began with the 200-freestyle relay, where both Lake Forest teams posted times that rank among the best in program history. Freshmen Megan Dodrill and Valeria Welk, sophomore Caprice Kalvelage, and senior Violet Anderson were the runners-up in the women's race in 1:38.10, which ranks third in team annals. On the men's side, the 1:25.11 posted by senior Justin Fugiel, freshman Alexander Wilson, sophomore Noah McAdam, and freshman Demetri Zemenides is the program's fifth-fastest time.
The final three rounds of diving followed the relay and Forester juniors Harriet Townsend and Ceylin Sahin placed second (337.30) and fifth (293.70), respectively, in the women's 1-meter competition.
Lake Forest's first victory of the weekend came in the women's 500-freestyle, where junior Ally McCarthy completed the 20 lengths of the pool in 5:02.56, which ranks her second in school history in the event. Senior Helena Blumenau was the next swimmer to touch the wall and her 5:06.22 is now the program's fifth-best clocking. The Foresters tallied 66 points in the event as freshman Amelie Andres placed fourth and junior Ella Burns fifth. The men's team had two of the top three finishers in the event in sophomore Ben Jacob (4:43.72) and senior Sebastian Wagoner (4:44.26).
Anderson, who won the 200-IM in the last two MWC Championships, made it 3-for-3 on Friday by nearly a second-and-a-half. She finished in 2:10.63 while Kalvelage was fourth in 2:13.49 and sophomore Sylvie Paddon-Jones fifth with a time of 2:13.74. Junior Ollie Land was fifth in the men's race in 1:57.17.
Lake Forest's top sprinters put their name on the program's top-5 list in the 50-freestyle on Friday. Dodrill was third in the women's race in 24.50 seconds and Wilson's 21.37 was good for fourth place on the men's side. Both swimmers now rank fourth in team history in the event. Welk also earn a spot in the women's A-final, where she placed seventh in 24.89 seconds.
Blumenau, Andres, Anderson, and Welk turned in another runner-up finish and broke a 10-year-old school record in the women's 400-medley relay with their time of 3:56.02. Another school record fell in the men's race when McAdam led off with a 100-backtroke time of 51.00 seconds. McAdam, Land, Jacob, and Wilson placed third and registered the program's fifth-fastest time at 3:28.99.
The Lake Forest women finished the meet's first day with 272 points, 29 more than second-place Grinnell. The Forester men rank third with 168, trailing Grinnell (285) and St. Norbert College (198).
Saturday's prelims will begin at 10:00 a.m. and the finals will start at 5:30 p.m.
