The Forester swimming & diving teams placed second at the 2011 Midwest Conference Championship Meet at Grinnell College over the weekend. Lake Forest's Vadim Tashlitsky '00 was named MWC Women's Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
Grinnell won its 13th consecutive women's title and the Pioneers' 894 points were just eight more than Lake Forest's 886. Lawrence University was third with 448. The Grinnell men finished with 866 points while the Foresters tallied 678.5 and third-place Lawrence had 484.
Sunday's finals competition began with the 1650-freestyle, where Forester sophomore Becky Shaak finished defending all three of her conference titles from a year ago with a victorious time of 17:41.64, more than 36 seconds ahead of the runner-up. Junior Amy Finn was third in 18:31.22 and classmate Jennifer Steege was eighth in 19:09.86. Sophomores J.J. Conoscenti (17:02.75) and Chris Wiatr (17:16.40) were second and third, respectively, in the men's 1650.
Half of the field in the finals of the 200-backstroke were Foresters and freshman Angelica Compton came from behind to win the event with a time of 2:11.36, which ranks her fourth in team history. Sophomore Meghan Mason was third in 2:15.27, freshman Sabrina Letwin fourth in 2:15.81, and freshman Loren Dutca eighth in 2:17.20. Senior Mike Mackin was third in the men's race with a time of 1:56.00 and freshman David Albion finished fourth in 2:00.86.
The Lake Forest women grabbed the lead when four of them placed in the top seven in the 100-freestyle. Sophomore Kelsey Hoeper successfully defended her second championship of the weekend and broke her own school record with a time on 53.50 seconds (she would swim even faster while leading off the 400-freestyle relay later in the meet). Junior Emily Watts was the runner-up with a career-best time of 54.01, which ranks her second in team history. Freshman Jill Pastick finished fourth in 55.30 and sophomore Amber Kerrigan was seventh in 56.49. Three Foresters placed among the top seven in the men's race, led by freshman Zach Wenner in fourth with a time of 48.19. Sophomores Diego Ledesma and Michael Tunzi were fifth in 48.28 and seventh in 48.62, respectively.
Senior Whitney Hales helped keep the Foresters in the lead with a third-place finish and time of 2:30.08 in the 200-breaststroke. Freshman Melissa Goosmann swam a 2:39 in the morning prelims to qualify for the final, where she placed eighth. Sophomore Alex Marks defended his title and broke his own conference record with a time of 2:05.82 in the men's 200-breaststroke. It was also a B-cut qualifying time for the NCAA Division III National Championship Meet. Sophomore Stamen Tintikov was fifth in 2:12.69, a time which ranks him fourth in program history.
The final individual event of the weekend was the 200-butterfly. Freshman Sarah Stoklosa, Lake Forest's only swimmer in the women's final, finished fourth in 2:21.88. The 2:20.98 she swam in the prelims would also have placed fourth in the final. The Grinnell women had four finalists and regained the lead by 14 points. Freshman Garr Punnett captured the title on the men's side with a conference record time of 1:56.86. Classmate John Vatkevich was fourth in 2:00.24 but his prelim time of 1:58.56 ranks him fourth in team history.
The meet's final event was the 400-freestyle and the Lake Forest women needed to win and have Grinnell place sixth to catch the Pioneers. Hoeper, Pastick, Shaak, and Watts came through with a victorious conference record time of 3:34.77 but the host school claimed the team title with its runner-up finish in the event. Hoeper's leadoff leg of 53.31 seconds broke the conference record. Lake Forest's men team (Punnett, Wenner, Ledesma, and Mackin) placed second but their time of 3:11.45 broke the school record by just two one-hundredths of a second.
Lake Forest won 12 of the meet's 40 events and broke five conference records. The Foresters established 11 new school records, four of which were better than the MWC record entering the weekend but not fast enough to win at this year's conference meet.
Shaak (500-freestyle, 400-IM), Mackin (100-backstroke), and Marks (200-breaststroke) will look to improve the NCAA qualifying times they posted at the University of Chicago's Midwest Invitational next weekend. Other select Foresters will also participate in the meet.
Friday's Day 1 Recap | Saturday's Day 2 Recap | Sunday's Day 3 Recap
