Swim & dive takes victory against Kzoo

Last Saturday the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams competed against Kalamazoo College in a MIAA dual meet, with both teams victorious! The men’s team won with 156 points to Kalamazoo’s 144, taking nine first place finishes throughout the meet. The women’s team topped the men in points and places, ending the meet 163-134 with ten first place finishes. The win followed an encouraging week as sophomores Daniel Keith and Grant Williams swept the MIAA player of the week honors, both for the second time this season. Keith was named swimmer of the week last week for his performance in the 200-yard backstroke at Wheaton College, second-fastest in the MIAA. Williams was named diver of the week last week for his seasonhigh dives at Wabash College. The men’s victory featured wins by four different contributors who dominated the scoring.

Keith won three events, the 100 backstroke in 53.54 seconds, the 200 backstroke in 1:58.12 and the 100 butterfly in 51.34 seconds. Junior Daniel Clyde took two first place finishes in the 200 freestyle in 1:48.11 and the 100 freestyle in 49.01. Senior Jeff Engle won the 500 freestyle in 5:06.19. The divers swept the top three places, with Williams winning the 1 and 3-meter dives. He set Hope’s dual-meet record in the 1-meter with a score of 313.95, breaking the previous 308.5 record (’16). His 3-meter score was 293.90. He was followed by Brian Simonich (’19) in second and Kamaron Wilcox (’22) who took third on both boards.

Completing the series of wins was a 400 freestyle relay team of Keith, Clyde and two freshmen: Andrew Dwan and Nick Weigle, who swam the race in 3:13.56. The women’s side also came off a successful week, with senior Abigail Brinks being named the women’s swimmer of the week for the first time in her career after her incredible performance at Wheaton. She swam the 1,000 freestyle in 11:7.02, the fastest in the MIAA by two full seconds.

The Flying Dutch had a larger spread of swimmers and divers taking their impressive ten wins last Saturday, using the depth of their team to overcome Kalamazoo. The team started strong with a win in the 200 medley relay, featuring swimmers Allison Eppinga (’20), Paula Nolte (’20), Betsy Craig (’19) and Sydney Asselin (’19) in a time of 1:51.85. Eppinga also took an individual win in the 100 freestyle in a speedy 54.94 seconds. Freshman Paige Kuhn won the 1650 freestyle in 18:11.26, junior Erin Emmert won the 200 butterfly and sophomore Meg Peel raced hard to win and set a pool record for the 200 backstroke, swimming a time of 2:08.36. The swimmers also swept the top two places of four other events, firmly pushing the competition towards Hope’s winning side.

Peel won the 100 backstroke followed by sophomore Hope Reynolds. In the 200 free, sophomore Emma Schaefer took first with Brinks following. Brinks kept swimming strong, winning the 50 freestyle with Asselin barely a second behind, and in the 100 butterfly, Craig took first and Eppinga took second. Senior diver Sara Plohetski didn’t miss out on the wins, taking first place on the 1-meter board with a score of 244.10. This weekend the divers look forward to competing twice! On Friday they dive at Grand Valley State University, and on Saturday they will be joined by the swimmers in a dual meet at the Dow Center Kresge Natatorium against Albion College. Come out and support the teams!