The Charger swim team started the year with excellent performances in a double-dual meet against Ashland University and Saginaw Valley State University. They spent a week preparing during their annual training trip to Florida, an opportunity to travel, bond as a team, and practice in a long course pool which makes short course performances stronger.
“It was a good meet to get back in the swing of things after a long break,” head coach Kurt Kirner said. “Times were as expected after a hard training trip but the efforts were exceptional. Many of the women mentioned that the water temperature was cold which affected their ability to warm-up adequately, but they did not make that an excuse for not giving their best efforts.”
The meet opened with a commanding win in the 400 yard medley relay; junior Caroline Holmes, sophomores Emma Dickhudt and Megan Clifford, and senior Marie Taylor grabbed a win by a nine second margin, finishing in 4:02.69.
Sophomore Joanna Burnham came out on top of both her individual events and was named G-MAC swimming and diving athlete of the week for her performance at the meet. In the 400 yard individual medley, she finished in 4:44.88, just under five seconds faster than the second place finisher. In a tight 100 yard breaststroke race, she swam a 1:09.84. The event also saw Dickhudt in second (1:10.73) and senior Hannah Douthitt in fourth (1:10.98).
“I was happy with my swims for this point in the season,” Dickhudt said. “Coming off of break is always really tough so I was happy to feel good in my races and go one, two, three in the 100 breaststroke with Joanna and Hannah.”
Chargers went one and two in the 1000 yard freestyle, with sophomore Elise Mason in first (11:02.35) and senior Sarah Clark in second (11:23.53). Junior Sarah Pataniczek came in a close fourth with a time of 11:34.03.
Taylor topped the 50 yard freestyle event with a time of 25.10, closely followed by freshman Julianna Weir who swam a 25.43.
Clifford won the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 58.44. Pataniczek finished third with a 1:00.69.
In the 100 yard backstroke, Holmes finished second with a time of 1:01.00, just six hundredths of a second behind the Saginaw swimmer in first (1:00.94).
The Chargers saw another close finish in the meet’s closing event, the 200 yard freestyle relay. The team of sophomore Lilly Golladay, senior Leah Tunney, Weir, and Clifford finished in 1:40.76 while the first place Saginaw team swam a 1:40.70.
The team has one more opportunity to race before the conference championships that take place in the second week of February.
“To make sure we are prepared, we are continuing to work hard at each practice, keeping the morale high as we unite around the goal of winning a fourth consecutive conference championship,” Dickhudt said. “This year we are expecting some tough competition, but we are confident in the work we have put in and the mental toughness we have.”
This weekend, the team will travel to Stevens Point, Wisconsin, for a two day meet against University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
