On Nov. 12, the women’s swim team killed two birds with one stone. They built team spirit as they swam relay-style 50 yard sprints for a full hour, but more importantly, they honored fallen Carleton College swimmer Ted Mullin who died from sarcoma.
The event, called the “Hour of Power,” or a full 60 minutes of relay 50s, had “Leave it in the Pool” as its theme. The goal of the workout was to help spread awareness of the disease and raise money to contribute to the Ted Mullin Fund for Pediatric Sarcoma Research.
The event clearly bonded the team, as the girls cheered each other on while they tried to keep each lane relay the same length.
The Chargers kept their winning streak alive following their fantastic four win weekend at home. This past Saturday, the Chargers travelled to Canton, Ohio where they faced off against Malone University and the University of Findlay. They came out on top 194-57 against Malone and 154-107 against Findlay.
Head coach Kurt Kirner’s goal was to beat Findlay, and they did that with flying colors. Kirner said he was very pleased with the team, and with junior sprinter Rachel Kurtz in particular.
“As a team we are working harder than ever and are also more tired right now, but we persevered through that, so I’m happy,” he said. “Rachel is ahead of where she was last year, and her sprint times this weekend were very fast.”
Many swimmers, including a lot of younger ones, contributed to the win. Freshman Kylie Powrie took the longest event of the day, winning the 1650 free in 18:35.59. Sophomore Jennifer Wheeler also did well. She won the 500 free in 5:22.7, and swam a very impressive 2:12.44 for 200 butterfly, which is comparable to the times that former Charger and school record holder Linda Okonkowski (‘12) was swimming during this part of the season when she went to Nationals in the same event.
Kurtz went three for three in her individual events, sweeping the 200 (2:00.31), 50 (24.45) and 100 (54.06) freestyle events. She received help from senior Hayley Johnson, sophomore Naofa Noll, and Powrie as the foursome edged out Findlay by half a second to win the 200 free relay in 1:42.26. Other notable performers include freshman Emily Shallman, who won the 100 butterfly in 1:01.33, and junior Sarah Rinaldi who came home first in the grueling 400 IM in 4:44.99.
The Chargers will next have an opportunity to prove themselves when they travel to Chicago for a three day invitational which will include prelims and finals. Due to the structure of the meet, the girls won’t have a ton of opportunities to enjoy what Chicago has to offer and will mainly be swimming, eating, and sleeping while there. In the words of junior Ali Bauer, “this is a business trip for sure.”
This is the closest thing they will have to GLIACs before actually competing there, and teams from all over will be travelling to Chicago so the competition will be stiff.
“We are resting this week and suiting up — wearing our faster racing suits — for the meet so it should be fun,” Bauer said.
