Senior Phoebe Johnston races in Hillsdale on Sept. 23. Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department
After winter break and a team training trip in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, the Charger swim team opened the year with individual wins against Saginaw Valley State University.
“We did well in a very challenging situation,” head coach Kurt Kirner said. “We didn’t match up well because the other team did choose to wear championship suits, but I was proud of how my team swam in terms of their tenacity and how they were able to put together some good races.”
The Chargers put up some top individual swims but Saginaw overtook Hillsdale 154-77.
“We were closer to Saginaw at our mid-season meet, but it’s OK since we are putting the hard work in now and breaking down our bodies so at the end of the season we can drop time and place higher at G-MACs,” freshman Izzy Ondracek said.
Senior Caroline Holmes placed in the top two in each of her events, finishing first in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:58.35, and second in the 100 backstroke in 1:00.66. She swam backstroke for the second place 400 medley relay alongside juniors Joanna Burnham, Megan Clifford, and Lucia Ruchti, finishing in 4:03.07.
“The first meet after our training trip is always tough, but I think our team did a great job of giving our best effort for each race and persevering through the event lineup,” Holmes said.
Clifford also finished top two in her individual events. In the 50 freestyle, which Kirner said she doesn’t swim often, she finished first with a time of 24.93, nearly a full second ahead of the second-place Saginaw athlete — a huge margin for such a short sprint. She finished second in the 100 butterfly with a time of 58.05.
Junior Emma Dickhudt was the third of three Chargers to finish first in an event, taking the top spot in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:07.54.
“Our first meet back after a training trip is always a challenge because we are exhausted from all our hard work, but I was very proud of our efforts and energy this past weekend at our meet against SVSU,” Dickhudt said. “We were all very positive and focused on giving our best efforts despite being tired from the past few weeks of tough training.”
Kirner described the meet as challenging, but Holmes, one of the team’s captains, noted it was a good opportunity to gauge the team’s preparedness for the championships.
“This meet was a good benchmark to see where we are with one month left before conference,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to attacking the last few weeks of training to put ourselves in the best position possible for GMACs.”
Dickhudt, another captain, said the team’s morale was high.
“We were all very positive and focused on giving our best efforts despite being tired from the past few weeks of tough training,” she said.
Ondracek said it has been challenging to navigate this part of the collegiate swimming season for the first time.
“It’s a learning curve as a freshman, but I’m just excited to see how the rest of the season will go,” she said.
This weekend, the team will have its last meet before the G-MAC championships February 14-17. The Chargers will travel for a meet against Davenport University and Aquinas College. Kirner said he expects it to be a great last meet for the team in the regular season.
“They have some very good swimmers and I have a lot of respect for that coach and how he does things,” Kirner said. “It should just be a great matchup. It should give us one last chance to try to get some quality swims in, maybe even some opportunities to get some good seed times for championships.”
