If a season’s first meet indicates anything, the Hillsdale College swim team will dominate in the pool this year.
The Chargers triumphed over Albion College 152-136 Friday evening in the McAvoy pool. The team overcame its handicap of competing without a diving team that could earn them 26 to 32 points.
The G-MAC named freshman Hannah Wilkens its Women’s Swimming Athlete of the Week after her collegiate debut.
“The meet was a great starting point for us. The women were certainly up to the challenge,” head coach Kurt Kirner said. “The entire team fought for every place to make the win a reality, even in the absence of diving.”
Wilkens won first place in the 200 freestyle in just 1:58:20. She swam the 500 freestyle in 5:16:57, finishing her final lap before any competitors. Wilkens took second in the 200 IM with 2:16:99. She said she was surprised when she found out the G-MAC had recognized her as Women’s Swimming Athlete of the Week.
“I feel honored and humbled and proud to represent such an amazing team and school,” Wilkens wrote in an email. “It motivates me to be a supportive and encouraging teammate and to keep working hard to reach my goals.”
Wilkens said she enjoyed supporting her team and feeding their encouragement as well. To perform as well and continuously as she did, she said, she made sure to warm up and down before and after each race. She also mentally compartmentalized every event.
“During a meet, I try not to let previous races affect my next races,” Wilkens said. “If I have a bad race or I’m tired I try to shake it off and reset for the next one.”
Freshman Katherine Heeres and junior Anika Ellingson also stood out on Friday.
“They have set the bar high for themselves and their teammates,” Kirner said in an email. “Hannah was chosen as G-MAC Swimmer of the Week on Wednesday for her outstanding showing at the meet, however any one of the three could have been nominated based upon their performances.”
Heeres took a close second to Wilkens in the 200 free, touching the wall at 1:59:79. She also won two first places in the 100 backstroke at 1:00:02 and in the 200 IM at 2:15:19.
Heeres and Ellingson worked with sophomore Catherine Voisin and junior Suzanne DeTar to win first in the 200 medley relay in 1:50:37.
Ellingson performed strongly in the 50 and 100 breastroke, winning both in 30:95 and 1:06:80, respectively.
Physical preparation is an obvious element of success during any meet, Heeres said, but a swimmer’s mental game plays an important role, too.
“We’ve been focusing on the mental side of swimming, being mentally tough and not letting your thoughts control you,” Heeres said. “As someone who puts a lot of pressure on themselves and gets very nervous before races, I always find it helpful to focus less on myself by cheering and encouraging my teammates.”
Kirner said the team will focus on this aspect of training as they look to their next competition.
“I find ‘emotional’ reactions to things in both practices and meets limit their abilities to shoot for their own individual goals,” Kirner said. “The season is too short to be consumed in thoughts and feelings that don’t have them focused 100 percent on getting better as competitors.”
The team will next face Calvin College and Grand Valley State University when they swim in Grand Rapids this Friday.
“I’m feeling pretty confident about this next meet; I feel like our team will be focused more on times and less on placing at this meet because we the smallest team at the tri-meet,” Ellingson wrote in an email. “It’ll be good for us to have some faster competition to see what we need to be working on again during practices. If we can maintain faster times than our Albion meet, I feel that it sets us up really well for the rest of our season.”