The Lake Forest College women's swimming and diving team is just six points out of the lead and the men have climbed into second place after day two of three at the 2022 Midwest Conference Championship Meet.
Saturday's finals session began with the men's 200-medley relay and the Foresters finished third with a time of 1:37.13. Junior Helena Blumenau, senior Sarah Burchart, junior Violet Anderson, and senior Kerry Mullen set a school record as the runners-up in the women's race with a time of 1:47.78.
The diving competition was next and Lake Forest sophomore Harriet Townsend and senior McKinley Scheppler placed third and fourth for the second day in a row. Townsend earned 332.05 points and Scheppler 318.80 in Saturday's 1-meter event.
The first of six Forester victories on the day came in the men's 400-individual medley, which senior Max Rowland won for the second time in his career while classmate Alec Pittman was fourth. They continue to rank second and fourth in team history but improved their career-best times to 4:02.30 and 4:07.34, respectively. Sophomore David Beck was eighth in the event in 4:19.04. Freshman Sylvie Paddon-Jones was Lake Forest's only representative in the women's A-final and she placed fourth with a time of 4:52.86.
Freshman Matthew Makepeace made his first individual event appearance of the meet in the 100-butterfly and placed sixth in 53.44 seconds. Anderson defended her title in the women's race, edging out the runner-up by .12 seconds with a time of 57.05. Senior Kylie Morgan was sixth in 59.00 seconds and now ranks fourth in team history in the event. Freshman Michelle Paddon-Jones placed seventh in 1:00.12.
Lake Forest swept the 200-freestyle with senior Graeme Witte defending his title in the men's race with a time of 1:43.31 and sophomore Ally McCarthy prevailing on the women's side in 1:54.61, which places her third in program history. The Foresters also had the third-place finisher in both races in sophomore Ollie Land (1:44.16) and freshman Caprice Kalvelage (1:56.49). Kalvelage put her name on the program's top-times list in fifth place. Burchart and sophomore Ella Burns added several more points to the women's team's cause by placing fifth in 1:59.49 and sixth in 2:00.41, respectively.
The men's program's top-times list also received new entry when freshman Tucker Potts matched the second-fastest time in team history (57.58) in the morning prelims. He finished fourth in the finals in 57.86 seconds. Sophomore Sarah McField was third in the women's event with a time of 1:09.70 and freshman Lia Romanotto was fifth in 1:10.25.
Both Forester teams had one swimmer in the A-final of the 100-backstroke. Freshman Noah McAdam placed seventh in the men's race in 54.01 seconds while Blumenau was the women's runner-up with a time of 58.76 seconds. She now ranks fifth in school history in the event.
Lake Forest put a final stamp on Saturday's competition by sweeping the 800-freestyle relay. Rowland, Witte, Land, and Pittman now rank third in team history with their clocking of 6:58.55. The women cut their 12-point deficit to Grinnell in half when Burchart, Kalvelage, McCarthy, and Blumenau prevailed by nearly two seconds with the second-best mark in school history (7:47.12).
With 598.5 points, the Forester women trail Grinnell by just six going into the final day of competition. The Lake Forest men were eight points behind second-place St. Norbert College after day one but are now 45 points ahead of the Green Knights 428-383. Grinnell leads with 602.
Sunday's prelims will begin at 9:00 in the morning and the finals at 4:00 p.m.
