The Lake Forest College men's swimming & diving team finished first at the Midwest Conference Championships for the second straight season and the Forester women placed second behind host Grinnell College for the third year in a row. Senior Christina Pekar was named MWC Women's Diver of the Meet, freshman Victoria Karker the Women's Swimmer of the Meet, sophomore Sam Freedberg the Men's Swimmer of the Meet, and Vadim Tashlitsky the Men's Coach of the Year.
The Foresters claimed five event titles on Sunday, matching their total from each of the first two days of competition.
The finals session began with the last heat of the women's 1,650-freestyle and Lake Forest was represented by freshmen Lily McCarthy and Toni Corbani. McCarthy placed second with a time of 18:11.53 and Corbani fifth in 18:34.81. McCarthy's time at the 1000-yard mark was 10:55.51, ranking her fourth in team history.
Lake Forest had five of the top nine finishers in the men's 1,650-freestyle. Sophomore James Haney was third in 16:30.48 and senior Brock Moné fourth in 16:35.17. Haney's time places him second in team history and Moné will graduate ranked third in the event. They are also now ranked third and fourth in program history, respectively, in the 1000. Freshman Ian Murphy placed sixth on Sunday with a time of 16:42.05, sophomore Sean Flanigan seventh in 16:50.42, and senior Mitchell Reiner ninth in 17:04.62.
The team's assoult on the school record books continued in the women's 200-backstroke, where sophomore Emily Bowens' runner-up time of 2:03.95 was the fastest in team annals and an NCAA B-Cut qualifying mark. Senior Kelsie Miller finished in 2:05.60 and freshman Evelyn Johnson in 2:08.98. Their times were good for third and fifth in the race and program history. In addition, freshman Maggie Kroeger was seventh in 2:11.64.
Sophomore Orion Huey turned in the team's first victory of the day in the men's 200-backstroke. His time of 1:52.21 was an NCAA B-Cut qualifying mark and ranks second in team history, just .04 seconds off the school record. Freshman George Hu placed fourth in 1:57.24 and sophomore Virgil Thomas sixth in 1:58.94.
Karker, who broke conference records and posted NCAA B-Cut times while winning the 200-IM on Friday and the 200-freestyle on Saturday, added another victory in Sunday's 100-freestyle. Her time of 53.07 seconds ranks her second in team history, just two-tenths of a second off the school and conference record. Fellow fresman Simona Kurta was sixth in the event with a time of 54.28 seconds and sophomore Lily Thorsen 11th in 55.45.
After losing ground to Grinnell in each of the previous three events, the Forester men led by just 22 going into the 100-freestyle. With four of the top seven swimmers in the race, they outscored the Pioneers by six and extended their overall lead to 28 points. Sophomore Drake Nickell finished third in 47.70 seconds, followed immediately by freshman David Bunting in 47.94 and sophomore Travis Johnson in 48.04. Freshman Jakobi McClellan was seventh in 48.11.
Sophomore Lauren Dalecky's 200-breaststroke time in last year's conference championships ranked her fifth in team history and, while she did not move up the list, her runner-up time of 2:28.46 this season was an improvement of .03 seconds. Freshman Emily Cline finished eight with a time of 2:37.39, senior Jessica Hanch 10th in 2:38.62, and freshman Emma Levine 17th in 2:51.10.
A day after repeating as league champion in the 100-breaststroke, sophomore Kristofer Korth accomplished the same feat in the 200-breaststroke on Sunday. His time of 2:06.40 was also an NCAA B-Cut qualifying mark. Freshman Josaiah Clark added his name to the Forester record books, where his third-place time of 2:09.47 on Sunday ranks fourth in team history. Sophomore Chris Martinez was fourth in 2:10.95. The Foresters increased their lead over the Pioneers to 51 points.
The 200-butterfly was the final individual event of the meet. Forester freshman Madison Martell was the runner-up in the women's race and her school record time of 2:08.15 was also an NCAA B-Cut qualifying mark.
Freedberg solidified his MWC Swimmer of the Meet award by winning the men's 200-butterfly in 1:50.83, a half-second better than his own team and conference record. It was his third victory and third NCAA B-Cut of the weekend. Haney finished fourth in the race in 1:59.02, despite having competed in the 1650-freestyle earlier in the evening. Junior Armel Cazedepats was sixth in 2:01.69 and freshman Ian Murphy eighth in 2:04.73. Their 57 points were 23 more than Grinnell's total for the race, clinching the team's second straight conference championship.
The Foresters' 13th school record of the weekend was posted by Kurta, Evelyn Johnson, Bowens, and Karker in the women's 400-freestyle relay. They finished second at the meet and their time of 3:33.00 was more than four-and-a-half seconds faster than the previous program-best.
Lake Forest put a final stamp on the meet by winning the men's 400-freestyle relay in 3:09.33. Nickell, Bunting, Travis Johnson, and Huey edged out Grinnell by .56 seconds in the race with the third-fastest time in team history.
In addition to winning 15 events and setting 13 program records, the Foresters met the NCAA B-Cut qualifying standard nine times, broke five MWC records, and made 45 new or improved entries onto the list of the top five performances in program history in each event.
The Lake Forest women finished with 786.5 points, behind only Grinnell's 1,074. Carroll University was third with 514 points and Lawrence University fourth with 474. They were followed by Monmoouth College with 399.5, Ripon College with 348, Knox College with 214, Beloit College with 204, and Illinois College with 147.
On the men's side, the Foresters' 1,072 points were 80 more than the Pioneers' 992. Carroll was a distant third with 523 points and Monmouth fourth with 374. Fifth-place Beloit tallied 282 points, Ripon 237, Illinois College 206, Lawrence 190, and Knox 187.
The MWC Men's Coach of the Year award was the second for Tashlitsky, who also earned the honor in 2010. In addition, he was named MWC Women's Coach of the Year four seasons in a row from 2010-13.
While the season is over for most of the Foresters, select members of the team will compete in next weekend's Midwest Invitational at the University of Chicago.
