After falling to the University of Indianapolis 110-95 in the last home meet of the season on Jan. 10, the Charger swim team bounced back with wins against Saginaw Valley State University (157-123) and Olivet College (91-62) in back-to-back meets on Jan. 16 and 17.
The triumph over Olivet was a milestone in the season for the Chargers, who now have broken the 10-win barrier by winning 10 dual meets in a row for the first time in school history.
“The team was definitely not up to standards against UIndy, but we came back with some pretty consistent swims this last weekend against SVSU,” head coach Kurt Kirner said, “We are at the point in our season where we are prepping for taper and rest. GLIACs are just around the corner and we need to get through this upcoming week with higher training loads and then it should be downhill from there.”
The team’s record is now 10-3 with only one meet to go before the GLIACS on Feb. 11.
“The team has been swimming tired which is always the case for the first meet back,” Kirner said, “[Sophomore] Emily Shallman has been putting together some great times in the mid-distance free events and Rachael Kurtz has been on fire in her last season.”
Shallman had a standout performance in the meets against UIndy and SVSU, placing first in the 200 Freestyle and 200 Butterfly.
Senior Rachael Kurtz was crowned champion in both the 50 Freestyle and 100 Freestyle against both UIndy and SVSU.
Juniors Zoe Hopkins and Mikalah Smith dominated against Indianapolis with a one- two finish in the 1000 Freestyle swimming times of 11:05.57 (Hopkins) and 11:10.47 (Smith). Hopkins and Smith went at it again winning first and second in the 500 Freestyle with times of 5:23.69 (Hopkins) and 5:25.10 (Smith).
“The team did amazing. We bonded over our sore and tired muscles. Everyone was very supportive and positive. We had a lot of improvement from this same meet last year. We only lost by 15 points to UIndy which is really close in swimming so we considered it a job well done. I don’t think there was much we could have done better, but we are all ready to let our bodies rest for GLIACs,” Hopkins said.
Before the UIndy meet, the team traveled to Florida to train during the school’s winter break, where the girls were able to put academic stresses aside and swim at a higher level.
“The idea of centering life around strictly training is comforting and invigorating,” Kirner said.
“I thought we did well coming off a hard training trip,” junior Alissa Jones said. “We really pushed through the pain and had some great races against UIndy, Saginaw Valley and Olivet.”
The swim team next competes on Jan. 24 at Ashland University at 1 p.m.
