In a dual meet on Friday, the Wabash college men were victorious over Northern Michigan. The meet was closely contested as they finished with a 118-108 score. The Northern Michigan women swam to a 146-81 win over Hillsdale. Full results can be found here.
Wabash:
The Little Giants finished one place behind NMU one month ago at the Calvin Invitational.
Wabash scored 19 top-three finishes in the individual events and won the final relay of the day to secure the win. The Little Giants’ foursome of Elliot Johns, Wyatt Tarter, Zechariah Banks, andChris McGue won the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:26.82.David Johnson, Scottie Ogle, Joel Paquin, and Chris Dabrowskicombined to place third by finishing in 1:33.27. Dakota Rhodes,Josh Bleisch, Clayton Highum, and McGue took second place in the opening 200-yard medley relay (1:40.45).
Jack Belford scored the first of two first-place finishes with a winning time of 1:46.19 in the 200 free. Kyle Louks took second by finishing in 1:49.16. Belford’s second win came in the 500 free with a time of 4:45.12. Dabrowski place third in the event by finishing in 4:56.30.
Johns won the 50 free by touching the wall in 21.67. McGue placed third (22.50), while Tarter finished fourth (22.71). Johns added another victory in the 100 free with a time of 47.77, just ahead of Tarter in third place (49.24).
Wabash swept the top-two places in both diving events. Aaron Embree scored 227.05 points to win the one-meter competition, with teammate Max Von Deylen placing second with a score of 215.50. Embree also won the three-meter diving event with a score of 250.12. Von Deylen took second place with a final score of 230.25.
Banks scored a pair of second-place finishes for the Little Giants. He took second in the 200-yard individual medley by finishing in 2:00.80, just ahead of Belford in third place (2:04.39). Banks placed second in the 100 breaststroke (58.82) with Bleisch taking third place (1:01.84) in the event. Dabrowski scored a second-place finish in the 1,000-yard free (10:11.50) ahead of Paquin in third (10:16.65). Dane Gray grabbed third place in the 100 backstroke (56.66).
The Wabash performances came less than 24 hours after the team returned from its annual winter break training trip. The Little Giants traveled to Puerto Rico for 13 days.
“We did a few things differently with our training trip this year,” Wabash head coach Brent Noble said. “Every year teams come off the training trip very tired. We put a lot of work into figuring out how to be fast regardless of how the guys feel or how tired they might be. That yielded some pretty good swims today despite having just gotten off a plane 24 hours ago. We stepped up, competed, and put some good times up against a top NCAA Division II team.”
Wabash travels to Illinois Wesleyan next Friday evening before closing out the home portion of the schedule Saturday, January 16against the University of Washington-St. Louis at 2 p.m.
Northern Michigan:
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. — The Northern Michigan women’s swimming & diving team downed Hillsdale, 146-81, and the men’s team fell to Wabash, 131-112, at Wabash College Friday afternoon.
“This meet was a great way to end our training trip,” head coach Heidi Voight said. “We only have a few more weeks of hard training before we begin our final preparations for the GLIAC Championships in February.”
On the women’s side, Regan Kilburn led the way, winning three events: the 100 backstroke (58.79), 50 freestyle (25.11) and 200 medley relay (49.22).
Rachel Borchardt won both the 1,000 (10:42.96) and 500 freestyle (5:14.81). Angela Probstfeld won the 3-meter (247.35) and 1-meter dives (251.30).
Crystal Bennet won the 100 butterfly (59.58) and 200 medley relay (49.22). Courtney Konopitski also won two events: the 100 freestyle (55:45) and 200 medley relay (49.22). Hannah Crump rounded out the top Northern Michigan performances with her first win as a Wildcat in the 200 freestyle (2:00.57).
Some highlights for the men included Ryan Knox-Leonard’s wins in the 200 IM (1:54. 84), 100 backstroke (51.65) and 200 medley relay (1:34.91). Marc Perello put together wins in the 100 breaststroke (57.48) and 200 medley relay (1:34.91). Josh Cosgrove rounded out the top Wildcat performers with his wins in the 100 butterfly (52.86) and 200 medley relay (1:34.91).
Northern Michigan will return home from its training trip for the Wildcat Intrasquad meet Jan. 16 at the PEIF pool. Before the meet, the Wildcats will honor their seniors.
Hillsdale:
The Hillsdale College swimming team wasted little time after its Florida training trip to get back into competetion against conference opponents.
Friday afternoon, the Chargers lost to Northern Michigan University 146-81 in a meet held in Wabash, Indiana. Hillsdale will be back in action Saturday, at home in its last home meet of the season.
The team’s two relay teams performed well, each finishing in first. The 200 medley relay team ofTheresa Smith, Mae Bass, Peyton Bowen andWhitley Sowell earned 11 points for the team with a winning time of 38.99 seconds.
Rounding out the relay teams was the 200 free relay group of Suzanne DeTar, Jennifer Wheeler,Naofa Noll and Mikalah Smith, who won the race in 1:43.05.
The only individual race winner for the Chargers was freshman Anika Ellingson,who won the 100 yard breaststroke in 1:05.91. Hillsdale racked up plenty of second and third places throughout the meet events, but NMU took first in every other race, accumulating enough points to win.
Swimming news courtesy of Wabash College, Hillsdale, and Northern Michigan Swimming & Diving.