Hillsdale’s swim team lived up to their mantra of ‘beat the girl in the lane next to you’ this past weekend as they earned second place out of seven teams at the University of Chicago Invite.
The team tapered their workouts going into the meet to be able to compete rested and energetic, and the tactic worked. Moving forward, however, the team’s high intensity workouts will be in full swing to adequately prepare for the upcoming GLIAC Championship on February 11.
“The team did really well,” head coach Kurt Kirner said. “Rachel Kurtz and Sarah Rinaldi stood out in their events, and there were many outstanding performances including lifetime bests by both of our freshman which is really promising.”
Senior Rachel Kurtz, juniors Jennifer Wheeler and Alissa Jones and sophomore Emily Shallman kicked off the meet placing third in the 200 Freestyle Relay.
Kurtz also clinched wins in both the 100 freestyle swimming with a 52.48 time, and the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.9— good enough for the NCAA Division II B standard for qualifying to Nationals on March 11th. In addition to her 100 and 50 freestyle performances, Kurtz won second place in the 200 freestyle.
Kurtz’s strong performance won her GLIAC Swimmer of the Week honors.
Junior Zoe Hopkins and Sophomore Mikalah Smith kept the momentum going with third and fourth place finishes in the 1650 Freestyle.
“The meet went really well for me. The hard work and then rest really paid off, as it did for many of my teammates. We have all been training very hard in the pool and it is great to see it pay off,” Smith said.
Smith played a crucial role alongside junior Sarah Rinaldi, freshman Peyton Bowen, and senior Ali Bauer in the 200 medley relay, swimming into sixth place. Rinaldi also placed third in the 200 IM and second place in both the 200 and 100 breaststroke bringing in a substantial amount of points for the Chargers.
Shallman swam into seventh place in the 200 IM, and senior Cayley Cruickshank notably placed fourth in the 100 breaststroke.
“I feel like I performed decently for where we are in the season. I feel like my performances reflected all of the drill work the IM lane has been doing. We’ve really been working on tweaking the little things,” Shallman said.
Hopkins and Smith both weren’t finished yet as they placed fourth and sixth in the 500 freestyle scoring points. Junior Nafoa Noll clinched a third place spot in the 200 backstroke swimming a season’s best time of 2:11.60.
A highlight of the meet was the Chargers’ 800 Freestyle relay teams who battled their way into second and third place.
“Our 800 free relay really stood out to me, we were neck in neck with University of Chicago until the very end when their anchor leg pulled away, but our team swam really well and put up a great time despite it being the last race of the day on Saturday,” Shallman said, who also brought her A-game in the 100 freestyle with a fourth place finish, and fifth place in the 400 IM.
The Chargers’ next meet is their final home meet of the season on January 10 against Indianapolis and Wabash at 1 pm.
