The Hillsdale College swimming team competed in its first meet of the 2020-21 season on Oct. 17, and according to head coach Kurt Kirner, the new conditions necessitated by COVID-19 didn’t stop the Chargers from having a successful start.
For the first four weeks of the fall competitive season, the Chargers are participating in the nationwide Fall Virtual Cup hosted by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America. They will swim in their home pool at the George Roche Sports Complex, and their times will be uploaded to SwimCloud and compared to other swimmers from schools also doing their own time trials.
“I was very, very happy with how we swam because sometimes it’s difficult if you’re just swimming against your teammates in a race,” Kirner said. “It doesn’t really seem like a real life situation but we had good times. The results were actually as good, if not a little bit better, than previous first meets and that might be because of some of our talent pool.”
While the Chargers only competed against themselves, their results will be compared to other schools across all divisions.
“There was one division one team, a couple of division two teams, and a bunch of division three teams, which gives an opportunity for the athletes to get out there and compete and see their names on the list of top times,” Kirner said.
Freshman Cecilia Guadalupi also said that she was pleasantly surprised with how the meet went, despite the unconventional circumstances.
“Going in, I was initially feeling like there wasn’t going to be as much competition and it was going to feel like a low-scale meet,” Guadalupi said. “Since most of us haven’t raced since March, it was nice to have that intersquad competition.”
Notable races included the 200 freestyle upperclassman relay team of senior Emma Rao, junior Rebecca Briskey, junior Carissa Henderson, and senior Katherine Heeres, who took first with a time of 1:41.97. They competed against the underclassman team of sophomores Leah Tunney, Madison Pyhel, Sarah Clark, and Marie Taylor who finished close behind the upperclassmen with a time of 1:42.60.
Freshman Caroline Holmes and sophomore Leah Tunney took first and second in the 50 backstroke with times of 28.07 and 28.71, respectively.
Guadalupi took first in the 50 breaststroke (32.34), and junior Taylor Boyle finished close behind her with a time of 32.96.
Four other Chargers went 1-2 in their events. Sophomore Anika Fassett placed first and Pyhel placed second in the 50 butterfly with times of 27.15 and 27.81, respectively. Taylor finished first and Henderson finished second in the 100 freestyle with times of 54.31 and 57.84, respectively.
Holmes, Tunney, and Guadalupi placed first, second, and third, respectively in the 200 freestyle, with all three finishing in under two minutes.
“Normally, in the first week, we don’t typically have someone who’s going to go 1:59.00 or better, and we had three,” Kirnersaid. “And Caroline had the top time of all the swimmers so I was very happy and surprised.”
Guadalupi, who placed third, said she was happy to have the competition with her teammates.
“I think it’s really motivating when you have your teammates who are doing really well and you’re all racing each other and you can kind of see yourself grow with each other,” Guadalupi said. “It honestly just set a standard for what we should be working towards and we know that we’re all going to push each other now.”
The Chargers will have another opportunity to compete on Friday, Oct. 23, when they have their second virtual meet. The event will begin at 4 p.m.