Courtesy: Hillsdale College Athletic Department
The Hillsdale women’s swim team placed second at an invitational meet held by the University of Findlay in Findlay, Ohio, Nov. 15.
The Chargers defeated Lewis University by 93 points at 177–84, and lost to Findlay by 89 points at 175–86.
Freshman Kate Potwardowski placed second in the 50 breaststroke in 30.35, second in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1.09.50, and was on the 400 medley relay team, placing second in 4.00.91.
“Findlay is our rival school, and our coach was really trying to set us up as best as possible for this week,” Potwardowski said. “It was about putting our best effort into this meet, making sure that we’re putting up a good fight against Findlay, even though we knew they would put up a fight as well, and then doing our best to beat Lewis, which we did, so that was super exciting.”
Sophomore Ella Schafer finished second in the 200 freestyle with a season-best time of 1.56.15, second place in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.60, and second place in the 200 individual medley with another season-best of 2.14.43.
“Going into the meet, we knew that Findlay was going to be tough competition, but we wanted to embrace that and swim some fast times,” Schafer said.
Fast times came from sophomore Ella Malone, placing second in the 50 butterfly with a season best time of 26.83. Freshman Avery May, swimming the two longest events of the meet, finished first and earned a season best in the 1000 freestyle with a time of 10.43.13 and second place in the 500 freestyle in 5.15.03. Freshman Sasha Babenko placed first and swam a season best in the 50 backstroke in 27.28 and second place in the 100 backstroke in 59.40.
“I like where we are as a team right now. We just need to execute this next weekend,” head coach Kurt Kirner said. “We typically do great going into the midseason meet, so I’m looking forward to some great times this weekend.”
The Chargers will swim against Davenport University, Olivet Nazarene University, Quincy University, and Saginaw Valley State University in their midseason meet, the Don Kimble Invite, Nov. 21–23, in Kentwood, Michigan.
