The Forester women's swimming and diving team claimed the 11th Midwest Conference championship in program history over the weekend, edging out host Grinnell College by just 18.5 points. Lake Forest finished second behind Grinnell on the men's side.
Lake Forest won four more events on Sunday, increasing their total for the meet to 14. The first victory came in the first event of the finals session, the men's 1650 freestyle. Sophomore Alec Pittman defended his title by less than half a second ahead of Forester junior Max Rowland. Their times of 16:10.77 and 16:11.26 are the best in program history and NCAA B-cuts, making them eligible for selection to the NCAA Division III Championship Meet. In addition, Rowland's time of 9:50.19 at the 1000 mark is also a school record while Pittman's split of 9:51.82 was also faster than the previous mark. Sophomore Aaron Helms was fourth in the event with a time of 16:43.35.
Seniors Kelsey Mitchell and Ani Karagianis competed in the women's 1650, where Mitchell finished fourth in 18:42.72 and Karagianis was sixth with a time of 18:51.62.
Another senior, Zeb Thorsen, closed out his career with a seventh-place finish and time of 1:58.46 in the 200 backstroke. Junior Evan Weller was fifth in 1:57.12.
Lake Forest had three swimmers in the A-final of the women's 200 back and they were led by junior Fallon Longfield, who finished second with a time of 2:10.77. Freshmen Jhanati Rajesh and Anna Christiansen were sixth in 2:16.02 and eighth in 2:19.55, respectively.
After claiming his first career conference championship in an individual event in Saturday's 200 freestyle, sophomore Graeme Witte added another in the 100 freestyle on Sunday. His time of 46.68 seconds ranks second in program history while junior Marcus Carter-Buckman's 47.06 as the runner-up in the race is fifth in team annals. In addition to his two individual titles and another first-place finish in a relay over the weekend, Witte was named the MWC Elite 20 Award winner at the conclusion of the meet for having the highest grade point average over the last three semesters of any athlete in the league.
Despite their success in the first two events, the Forester women's lead over Grinnell had shrunk from 48.5 points at the start of the day to just 8.5. They were able to outscore the Pioneers by 52 points in the 100 freestyle, however, with five swimmers in the A-final. Sophomore Kylie Morgan led them with a second-place time of 53.80 seconds and her 53.65 in the morning prelims ranks fifth in school history. Junior Susan Guo finished third (53.82 seconds), sophomore Sarah Burchart fifth (54.22), senior Hannah Stinson seventh (55.52), and sophomore Kerry Mullen eighth (55.84).
Freshman Jackson Sawyer was the only Forester male in the top eight of the 200-breaststroke and his time of 2:11.88 was good for seventh place. Lake Forest also had just one swimmer in the women's A-final, runner-up Vanessa Ordaz, and her time in the prelims and final was an identical 2:29.90. The Forester women received a two-point boost in the event from senior diver Victoria Miller, who finished in the top 16 in the morning prelims and took home 15th place in the evening. Grinnell, however, had five swimmers in the A-final and closed the gap back to just 11.5 points.
The last individual event of the meet was the 200 butterfly. Junior Thomas Anderson finished fourth in the race with a time of 1:58.40 and sophomore Aaron Helms was sixth in 1:59.23.
In the women's race freshman Violet Anderson earned her third title of the weekend and broke the school record by more than a second-and-a-half with a time of 2:06.61. She was named the Most Outstanding Swimmer at the meet. Senior Rachel Trevillian finished third in 2:13.64 and freshman Sophie Hansen was seventh with a time of 2:20.73.
The Forester men battled with Grinnell throughout the 400 freestyle relay but came up short by just 1.12 seconds. The time of 3:09.22 posted by Carter-Buckman, Rowland, Witte, and Pittman, however, ranks fifth in program history.
Leading by 12.5 points, the Lake Forest needed to finish no worse than fifth place in the 400 freestyle relay to clinch their first team title since 2012. With extremely safe relay exchanges, Guo, Morgan, Burchart, and Anderson still outswam the field and their 3:34.73 is the third-best time in team annals.
The Forester women tallied 898 points over the weekend while Grinnell finished with 879.5. The home team took the men's competition with 915.5 points, well ahead of Lake Forest's 687.5. St. Norbert College was third with 516 points.
In addition to Witte and Anderson receiving their awards after Sunday's final day of competition Lake Forest head coach Vadim Tashlitsky was named MWC Coach of the Year on the women's side for the fifth time in his career. His athletes won 14 events over the course of the weekend, tied with Grinnell for league-high honors. They also broke one conference record, tied another, posted a pair of NCAA B-cuts, set seven school records, and made 24 updates to the program's list of the top five performers in each event.
