The Lake Forest College men's swimming & diving team captured the eighth Midwest Conference title in program history over the weekend and the women placed second at the 2014 MWC Championships at Grinnell College. Individual Foresters won six individual events on Sunday, including a 100-freestyle triumph by senior Zachary Wenner.
Wenner won in his final career attempt at an individual conference title after placing among the top four in an event 10 times, including four runner-up finishes. His time of 47.18 seconds was good for first place in the finals and he finished his morning prelim in a career-best 47.00 seconds, which ranks him third in program history.
Wenner's championship was the second in a stretch of four straight victories by the Foresters. Freshman Emily Bowens began the streak and posted a meet record time of 2:06.57 in the 200-backstroke. Sophomore Alex Dunn made it a Lake Forest sweep in the 100-freestyle, finishing in 53.11 seconds to defend her title from a year ago. Fellow sophomore Kristofer Korth followed with a come-from-behind win in the 200-breaststroke. He completed the race in 2:05.36 for his second conference record and third NCAA "B-cut" qualifying mark of the weekend.
Lake Forest also swept the 200-butterfly, with senoir Garr Punnett taking the men's race and sophomore Brooke Rowley the women's. Punnett posted a "B-cut" time of 1:53.52 in the prelims and improved it by half a second in the final to break the conference record he set in 2013. Punnett won all three of his individual events for the third year in a row. His 10 individual titles are tied for the second-most in Forester men's team history and his 13 titles overall rank tied-for-sixth. Rowley was also the defending champion and her time of 2:10.82 was just eight-tenths of a second off her winning time from last season.
The Forester men entered Sunday's competition leading Grinnell, the 12-time defending champions, by 28 points and extended the lead to 45 after taking five of the top seven places in the 1650-freestyle. Junior Mitchell Reiner was third in 16:39.34, which improves his number four ranking in program history. He was followed by freshman James Haney, whose time of 16:42.79 ranks him fifth in team annals. Junior Mark Wilcoxen placed fifth in 16:42.95, sophomore Brock Mone sixth in 16:46.95, and freshman Christopher Martinez seventh in 17:07.25.
The lead shrunk to just seven points after the 200-backstroke, despite a runner-up finish by freshman Orion Huey. His time of 1:53.30 missed the NCAA "B-cut" standard by just 0.03 seconds but still ranks second in program history. Freshman Thomas Virgil was fifth in 1:57.71 and Mone finished eighth in 2:01.48. Grinnell had four of the top six finishers in the A-final and the top two in the B-final.
Lake Forest gained 16 points on the Pioneers in the 100-freestyle. In addition to Wenner's victory, freshman Drake Nickell was third in 47.44 seconds and classmate Travis Johnson placed sixth in 47.77.
Four Foresters earned points in the 200-breaststroke to stretch the lead to 25. Freshman Sam Freedberg was the runner-up behind Korth and his time of 2:07.01 gives him the number three spot in team history. Martinez finished 12th with a time of 2:17.65 (2:14.87 in prelims) in his second individual event of the day.
Lake Forest clinched the team victory with four of the top five finishers in the grueling 200-butterfly. Punnett won and was followed closely by sophomore Emile Siroit, whose time of 1:53.70 is an NCAA "B-cut" and ranks him second in team history. Wilcoxen was third in 1:54.49 and senior David Albion placed fifth with a career-best time of 1:57.39. The Foresters outscored Grinnell by 32 points in the event and led by 57 going into the last race of the weekend, which is worth just 40 points to the winner.
Nickell, Freedberg, Punnett, and Wenner closed out the meet with a runner-up finish in the 400-freestyle relay and their time of 3:08.44 ranks second in program history behind last year's performance.
On the women's side, senior Loren Dutca finished fourth in the 1650-freestyle in 18:18.05 but was the only Forester in the event.
In addition to Bowens' win in the 200-backstroke, junior Kelsie Miller placed third in 2:09.22 (2:09.00 in prelims) and freshman Camille Krier was sixth in 2:14.40 (2:13.72 in prelims). Senior Sabrina Letwin closed out her four years with a 12-place finish and time of 2:17.62.
Prior to Dunn's triumph in the A-final of the 100-freestyle, freshman Lily Thorsen tied for third in the B-final (11th overall) in 55.74 seconds.
Lauren Dalecky, another freshman, was third in the 200-breaststroke and her time of 2:28.49 ranks her fifth in team history. Junior Jessica Hanch finished 12th in 2:42.13 (2:41.12 in prelims) and sophomore Peyton Sukenic placed 16th in 2:47.31 (2:45.59 in prelims).
While Rowley was winning the 200-butterfly, freshman Aidan Bybee was placing fifth in 2:16.83. Sophomore Arlyn Bateman earned ninth place with a time of 2:20.12 and was followed closely by senior Sarah Stoklosa with a 10th-place time of 2:20.70.
Bowens, Miller, Dalecky, and Dunn finished the meet by placing third in the 400-freestyle with a time of 3:38.50, which ranks them fourth in team history. The 100-freestyle leadoff split of 54.26 seconds posted by Bowens also made the fifth spot on the all-time list.
The Forester men finished with 944 points, 51 more than Grinnell, who had won the last 12 conference championships. The women tallied 685.5, which trailed the Pioneers' 894 but was well ahead of third-place Monmouth College's total of 396.
Several awards were presented after the meet, including the 2014 MWC Diver of the Year distinction earned by Lake Forest junior Christina Pekar (photo on right), who won the 1-meter competition on Friday and the 3-meter event on Saturday.
While the season is over for the majority of Foresters, select swimmers will compete in the Midwest Invitational at the University of Chicago next Friday and Saturday. Juniors Christina and Sarah Pekar have also qualified for the NCAA Division III Regional Diving Competition the following weekend.
Friday's Recap | Saturday's Recap
