Swim & Dive competes well at Wheaton, Carthage

The men’s and women’s swimmers competed last weekend at the Wheaton College Invitational while the divers competed at the Carthage College Invitational. Both swimmers and divers recorded first place performances. The men’s swimmers took fourth in the meet overall with 371 points and one recordbreaking performance. The women’s team took third with 710 points with six first place finishes.

There were six teams at the meet. The women’s swimmers took first place in four individual events and two relays, led by sophomore Meg Peel. Peel won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:4.47, currently the seventh fastest time in the NCAA Division III. She also won the 100 backstroke at 57.43 with the eighth fastest time in the NCAA. The other individual event winners were sophomore Hope Reynolds who tied for first in the 200 backstroke and junior Erin Emmert in the 200 butterfly at 2:07.53. Peel also was part of both the relays that took first. The 200 medley relay team posted Megan Grimes Sports Editor a time of 1:46.68 with Peel, freshman Alyssa Potyraj, senior Betsy Craig and junior Allison Eppinga.

The 400 medley relay won with a time of 4:01.27 with Peel, sophomore Emma Schaefer, senior Sydney Asselin and Craig. On the men’s side, sophomore Daniel Keith broke the school record for the 200- yard individual medley, clocking a time of 1:52:51, beating the school record set last year by teammate junior Daniel Clyde by nearly two seconds. Keith went on to take third in the championship finals in the event, also taking third in the 100 freestyle at 47.05. Clyde also swam well in the meet, placing second in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:08.09. The divers also performed well at Carthage. Senior Sara Plohetski took first in the 3-meter dive out of the 15 divers competing, earning a seasonbest score of 331.60.

She took third in the 1-meter dive with 361.70 points. Two men’s divers placed second at Carthage in their eleven diver field. Senior Brian Simonich scored 419.45 points in the 3-meter dive for second place, followed by sophomore Grant Williams in third, who scored 416.20 and freshman Kamaron Wilcox, who took ninth. Williams also scored a season best of 456.75 points at the 1-meter board, taking second, while Simonich took fourth with 422.60 points and Wilcox took tenth. The swimmers and divers won’t compete again until January 12, where they will return to Wheaton to compete in the Michigan-Illinois Quad.