The Forester swimming and diving teams are in Grinnell, Iowa, this weekend for the three-day Midwest Conference Championship Meet. The Lake Forest women are in second place and the men in third after day two.
The Foresters began Saturday evening's finals session with third-place finishes in the 200-medley relay. Senior Helena Blumenau, freshman Amelie Andres, senior Violet Anderson, and freshman Megan Dodrill posted the fourth-fastest time in school history at 1:48.36. Sophomore Noah McAdam, junior Ollie Land, sophomore Ben Jacob, and freshman Alexander Wilson finished the men's race in 1:35.30.
The first of three Forester victories on the day came in women's 3-meter diving, where junior Harriet Townsend prevailed with a career-high 349.35 points. Classmate Ceylin Sahin was fourth with a score of 292.15.
Junior Ella Burns (4:46.87) and sophomore Sylvie Paddon-Jones (4:50.03) finished third and fourth, respectively, in the women's 400-IM and freshman Noah Garza (4:16.11) was fifth in the men's race.
The Lake Forest women accounted for half of the top six finishers in the 100-butterly, where Anderson was the runner-up in 57.48 seconds, senior Sophie Hansen was fourth in 58.66, and sophomore Michelle Paddon-Jones sixth with a time of 59.10 seconds. In the men's race, freshman Demetri Zemenides was also sixth in 52.50 seconds.
Eleven Foresters scored points in the men's and women's 200-freestyle, including seven who placed in the top eight. Junior Ally McCarthy was the runner-up in the women's race in 1:54.90 while Dodrill was fourth (1:56.36), freshman Valeria Welk fifth (1:57.26), and sophomore Caprice Kalvelage sixth (1:58.45). Jacob was the team's top finisher in the men's race, placing fourth with a time of 1:43.98. Land placed fifth in 1:44.11 and Wilson eighth in 1:44.89.
After contributing to a program record in the women's 400-medley relay on Friday, Andres earned one of her own in the 100-breaststroke. She broke the record with her prelims swim and then lowered the mark and won the event with a time of 1:05.81. The previous record was 1:06.53. On the men's side, junior Luke Bedalov's time of 59.26 seconds was good for fifth place.
Senior Jhanati Rajesh and freshman Kate Ryan qualified for the A-final in the 100-backstroke, where they finished sixth in 1:00.72 and eight in 1:01.21, respectively. McAdam was second in the men's race in 51.35 seconds and Zemenides placed sixth (53.51) in his second individual event of the day.
The 800-freestyle relay closed out the session and both Lake Forest teams did so in historic fashion. Blumenau, McCarthy, Dodrill, and Welk were victorious in the women's race and established a new program record with a time of 7:43.44. Blumenau's leadoff 200-freestyle clocking of 1:55.71 ranks fifth in team history, edging out Dodrill's time in the event earlier in the evening. Land, Jacob, senior Sebastian Wagoner, and McAdam were third with the second-fastest time in program history at 6:58.01.
The Forester women trail host Grinnell College by just 22 points going into the final day of competition. The men are comfortably in third, 84 points behind second place St. Norbert College and 129 clear of fourth-place Lawrence University. Grinnell leads by 230 over St. Norbert.
Sunday morning's prelims begin at 9:00 and the finals are set to start at 4:00 p.m.
