The Lake Forest College women's swimming & diving team is in first place with 299 points after day one of the three-day Midwest Conference Championship Meet at Lawrence University. Defending champion Grinnell College is in second place with 217 points. The Forester men trail first-place Grinnell by 87 points.
Lake Forest won seven of 12 events on the first day, starting with the women's 200-freestyle relay team of junior Kelsey Hoeper, freshman Kelsie Miller, and sophomores Loren Dutca and Jill Pastick with a time of 1:40.52. On the men's side freshman Kevin Barbrick, sophomores Garr Punnett and Zach Wenner, and junior Diego Ledesma placed second in 1:26.89, just 16-one-hundredths off the school record.
Friday night's finals continued with the last three dives of the women's 1-meter and men's 3-meter competition, where juniors Sam Gardner and Matt Perry made it a Lake Forest sweep. Gardner finished with 427.80 points and Perry with 453.10. Both marks were career-highs and NCAA Division III national meet-qualifying marks. Freshman Christina (417.60) and Sarah Pekar (399.60) placed third and fourth, respectively, and also met the standard for selection to the national meet. Senior Jade Perkins was sixth (383.50) and juniors Chandler Foster (363.75) and Alyx Smagacz (332.65) seventh and 10th, respectively. Recordings of divers posting qualifying marks will be reviewed by a national committee, which will then select the participants in the NCAA Championships.
Dutca finished third in the 500-freestyle with a time of 5:12.78. Pastick was fourth in 5:19.02 and senior Amy Finn placed fifth in 5:20.21. Four Forester men were in the finals, led by Wenner in third with a time of 4:48.67, which ranks him third in team history. Freshman Mitchell Reiner's prelim time of 4:49.92 places him fifth in program history and he finished fourth in the final. Freshmen Brock Mone (4:52.07) and Mark Wilcoxen (4:53.85) were sixth and seventh, respectively.
Junior Becky Shaak became the first Forester to set a school record at the meet with a time of 2:08.21 in the 200-IM. It was also a conference record and an NCAA Division III B-cut qualifying time. Sophomores Sarah Stoklosa (2:18.61) and Sabrina Letwin (2:23.48) also earned spots in the finals, where they placed fourth and eighth, respectively. Punnett made it another Lake Forest sweep and his winning time of 1:56.01 placed him second in program history. Junior Alex Marks was seventh in 2:02.84.
Junior Kelsey Hoeper continued her reign as the fastest female swimmer in the league, claiming her third consecutive title in the 50-freestyle (25.10 seconds). Junior Meghan Mason placed fifth in 25.94 seconds. Barbrick tied for second in the men's race and his fastest time of the day was 22.15 seconds. Ledesma was sixth in 22.50.
Miller, Shaak, Pastick, and Hoeper closed out day one with a victory in the 400-medley relay and their time of 3:59.93 broke the conference record by just one-hundredth of a second. Punnett, Marks, Barbrick, and Wenner placed second on the men's side but set a new school record with a time of 3:29.23. The 100-backstroke leadoff legs in both Forester relays also had historical value. Miller's 59.20 ranked her second in program history and Punnett's 52.15 placed him third in team annals.
Saturday's prelims will begin at 10:00 a.m. and the finals will start at 5:30 p.m.
Friday's Day 1 Recap | Saturday's Day 2 Recap | Sunday's Day 3 Recap
