Lake Forest College swimmers Sam Freedberg and Victoria Karker were named Midwest Conference Performers of the Week on Tuesday for their performance at the Carthage Winter Classic over the weekend. They each won three individual events and posted the league's top times in a combined six individual events.
Freedberg, a sophomore, began Friday's finals session by swimming the butterfly leg and helping the Foresters finish third in the 200-medley relay in 1:36.81, the fastest time in the conference this season. He then won the 400-IM in 4:09.26, which is also a league-best mark and ranks 46th in the nation this season. Freedberg finished first in the 200-butterfly in 1:58.51 and finished the night by anchoring the fourth-place 400-freestyle relay team that posted a conference-best time of 3:16.57.
The Lake Forest men started Saturday's finals by recording another MWC-best with a runner-up 400-medley relay time of 3:32.97. Freedberg once again swam the butterfly leg. He added a third-place finish in the 200-IM (1:59.27) before claiming another victory in the 100-butterfly. His time of 51.94 seconds is the fastest in the MWC this year and ranks him fifth in program history in the event.
Karker, a freshman, won all three of her individual events and helped Lake Forest finish first in three relays. After anchoring the Foresters' runner-up 200-medley relay team (1:51.06) to begin Friday's finals, she won the 200-freestyle in 1:54.29, a conference-best time that places her second in program history and faster than the current MWC Championship Meet record. She also touched the wall first in the 500-freestyle in a league-best 5:08.39, which ranks her third in team history and was faster than the winning time at the 2014 MWC Championship Meet. Karker led off Lake Forest's victorious 400-freestyle relay team that finished in 3:39.56, the fastest time in the MWC this year. Karker's 100-freestyle split of 53.94 seconds in also a league-best and places her third in program history.
With Karker as the team's anchor, the Foresters won the 400-medley relay to start Saturday's finals and their time of 4:01.26 is the best in the conference this year. Her winning 200-IM time of 2:10.31 is yet another league-best and ranks her third in team history. She closed out the weekend by anchoring the team's third-place 200-freestyle relay (1:41.34). In addition to her individual entries, she helped the Foresters' 200- and 400-medley relays climb into the program's all-time list of the top five by event.
The Lake Forest men placed second at the last meet of the fall semester while the women were third.
MWC Performers of the Week are selected by the league's director of media and information. Freedberg also earned the award on November 25.
Midwest Conference Men's Release (pdf)
Midwest Conference Women's Release (pdf)
