The Forester swimming and diving teams won half of the events on Sunday, the final day of the 2023 Midwest Conference Championship Meet at Grinnell College. The Lake Forest women were the league's runners-up by a narrow margin while the men placed third.
Sunday's finals session began with a Forester sweep of the 1650-freestyle. Junior Ally McCarthy took the women's race in 17:36.28, which ranks her third in program history. Senior Sebastian Wagoner prevailed in the event and now ranks fifth in team annals with a time of 16:29.22. Senior Helena Blumenau was the runner-up on the women's side in 17:43.65 and junior Ella Burns finished fourth in 18:24.89.
Blumenau was back in the pool for the next event, the 200-backstroke. After setting a program record and earning an NCAA B-Cut with a time of 2:03.06 in the morning prelims, she finished in 2:04.66 in the evening to win by nearly a second. Sophomore Caprice Kalvelage was sixth in the same race with a time of 2:11.43. Sophomore Noah McAdam placed fourth in the men's 200-backstroke in 1:51.97, which ranks him second in team history. Freshman Shea Stauffer joined him in the A-final and finished seventh in 1:59.04.
Freshman Megan Dodrill led three Forester women in the final of the 100-freestyle. She tied for second in 53.55 seconds while classmate Valeria Welk was fourth (53.70) and sophomore Karla Sanchez eighth (55.83). Freshman Alexander Wilson was fourth in the men's race with a time of 47.22 seconds while senior Justin Fugiel finished just two places and .09 seconds later.
Freshman Amelie Andres made it a sweep of the breaststroke events with a victory in Sunday's 200. She won by .54 seconds and her 2:24.36 ranks her fourth in program history. Sophomore Lia Romanotto and senior Vanessa Ordaz were sixth (2:32.41) and eighth (2:34.09), respectively. The Forester men also had three competitors in the A-final, led by junior Luke Bedalov in fifth place with a time of 2:11.15. Junior Ollie Land was the next swimmer to touch the wall (2:11.60) and was followed by freshman Andrew Lee (2:14.08).
The final individual event was the 200-butterfly, where Lake Forest senior Violet Anderson won for the third time in as many MWC Championship Meets. Her time of 2:09.11 was more than three seconds ahead of the runner-up. Sophomore Michelle Paddon-Jones was fifth in 2:15.56 and twin sister Sylvie Paddon-Jones eighth in 2:20.03. On the men's side, sophomore Ben Jacob placed fourth in 1:57.56.
Dodrill, Welk, Andres, and Anderson closed out the meet on the women's side with a triumph in the 400-freestyle relay. They finished just .18 seconds ahead of Grinnell and their clocking of 3:34.64 ranks third in school history. The men's team of Land, Wilson, freshman Demetri Zemenides, and Fugiel also posted their program's third-fastest time (3:07.83), which was good for second in the race.
Grinnell won both team competitions, although the Pioneer women's point total of 863.5 points was just three more than the Foresters. St. Norbert College was second and Lake Forest third in the men's team standings.
The Forester women did go home with several individual awards. Anderson was named MWC Swimmer of the Year after winning two events and finishing second in another. With a pair of victories and a fourth-place finish, Andres was selected as the MWC Newcomer of the Year. Finally, the MWC Elite 20 Award was presented to Kalvelage for owning the highest cumulative grade point average of any competitor at the event.
Lake Forest swimmers and divers finished the weekend having combined for 11 victories, five school records, and a total of 24 updates to the program's list of the top five performers in each event. All-MWC honors go to event winners with the Forester honorees listed below.
Violet Anderson – 200 IM, 200 fly, 400 free relay
Amelie Andres – 100 breast, 200 breast, 400 free relay
Helena Blumenau – 200 back, 800 free relay
Megan Dodrill – 800 free relay, 400 free relay
Ally McCarthy – 500 free, 1650 free, 800 free relay
Harriet Townsend – 3M diving
Sebastian Wagoner – 1650 free
Valeria Welk – 800 free relay, 400 free relay
