Junior Max Rowland defended his title in the 500 freestyle and Lake Forest won four more events Friday during the first day of the Midwest Conference Championship Meet at Grinnell College. The Forester women are in first place and men second with two days to go.
Rowland was also part of the Foresters' 200-freestyle relay team that placed second in 1:26.03. He was joined by fellow juniors Nathan Ulm and Marcus Carter-Buckman and freshman Justin Fugiel.
The Lake Forest women's 200-freestyle relay team of junior Susan Guo, sophomores Kylie Morgan and Kerry Mullen, and freshman Violet Anderson turned in the squad's first victory of the day in historic fashion. They broke the conference record by more than a second, completing the race in 1:36.38.
The final three rounds of the men's 1-meter and women's 3-meter diving events were next. Senior Lizzie Johns was the runner-up with 389.40 points on the women's side while classmate Victoria Miller was third (377.35) and sophomores Missy Bryan (366.60) and McKinley Scheppler (326.20) fifth and eighth, respectively. Freshman Naqi Rizvi was the only Forester in the men's event and he placed sixth with 287.65 points.
Rowland led Lake Forest's 1-2 finish in the men's 500 freestyle and his time of 4:38.68 was .13 seconds faster than the program record he set while winning the event a year ago. Sophomore Alec Pittman was second in the race and now ranks second in team annals with his time of 4:40.60. Sophomore Aaron Helms' clocking of 4:52.39 was good for eighth in the same race.
Guo made it a sweep in the 500 freestyle, touching the wall first in 5:12.53. Seniors Rachel Trevillian and Kelsey Mitchell were third in 5:14.32 and fifth in 5:32.11, respectively.
A pair of Forester juniors earned a spot in the men's A-final of the 200 individual medley. Evan Weller finished fifth in the race with a time of 1:58.50 and Thomas Anderson was seventh in 1:59.88.
After contributing to Lake Forest's relay victory earlier in the evening, Violet Anderson earned her first individual conference title in the 200 IM and her time of 2:09.11 ranks her third in team history. Morgan finished fifth in 2:15.75 and freshman Vanessa Ordaz sixth with a time of 2:15.98.
Carter-Buckman and Ulm returned to the pool in the 50 freestyle, where they placed fifth (21.66 seconds) and seventh (21.73), respectively.
Five Foresters finished in the top seven of the women's 50 freestyle and only one, winner Kerry Mullen, was a member of the victorious 200 freestyle relay team. She registered a time of 24.42 seconds in the final while sophomore Sarah Burchart was third in 24.85, freshman Sophie Hansen fifth in 24.92, junior Fallon Longfield sixth in 25.10, and freshman Ashlyn Pope seventh with a time of 25.36 seconds.
Day one ended with Lake Forest posting a pair of runner-up finishes the 400 medley relay. Carter-Buckman led off the men's race with a 100-backstroke time of 52.31 seconds, which ranks him fifth in school history in that event. He was followed by freshman Jackson Sawyer in the breaststroke, Thomas Anderson in the butterfly, and sophomore Graeme Witte in the freestyle and they completed the race in 3:30.09.
Longfield, Ordaz, Violet Anderson, and Mullen finished the women's event in 3:58.21, good for third place in program history.
The Forester women tallied 325 points on the day and lead second-place Grinnell, the seven-time defending league champion, by 93. Grinnell is in first place on the men's side with 246 points while Lake Forest is second with 217 and St. Norbert College third with 162.5.
Saturday morning's prelims will start at 10:00, the first eight rounds of the diving competition is slated for 1:00 p.m., and the finals will begin at 5:30 in the evening.
