Freshman Avery May cooling down after a race
Courtesy | Hillsdale College Athletic Department
Freshman Sasha Babenko earned Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Swimmer of the Week for a second time after the Hillsdale swim team placed first in two invitationals at California University of Pennsylvania Jan. 16-17.
The Chargers competed in the California (PA) Winter Frenzy on Friday afternoon, winning six of 14 events to finish with 233 points and place first out of five teams.
Babenko won the 100 freestyle in 53.78, and led off the winning team in the 400 medley relay that finished in 4:06.14, thanks to the help from freshman Kate Potwardowski, and sophomores Ella Malone and Ella Schafer. The Chargers also won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:43.27.
Potwardowski said she thought the relay did well given the team had a hard week of training.
“Sasha gave me the lead that we needed, but all of us put our best effort forward, and I think we all did really well,” Potwardowski said.
Other swimmers who secured wins in their individual races include Schafer in the 50 freestyle with a time of 25.48 and freshman Rylee Harris in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:29.93.
The 400 individual medley had a stacked podium with freshman Avery May finishing second in 4:48.80, junior Isabel Ondracek finishing third in 4:47.34, and senior Rotem Andegeko finishing fourth in 5:00.70.
The Chargers returned to the same pool the following day to compete in the Vulcan Invitational, winning all nine events to secure their second invitational title.
Both Babenko and May secured three invitational titles, winning both their individual events and their relay event. Babenko and May competed in the same 400 freestyle relay team alongside Harris and Malone to finish in 3:42.54.
Junior Olivia Leathers said she was happy with how the team performed over the weekend, and said head coach Kurt Kirner expressed the same feeling.
“He said that we did a lot better than he expected because of our week-long training trip in Florida right before school started, and also because he has been kicking our butts in practice,” Leathers said.
Andegeko said she also thought the meet went well given there were only six lanes in the pool. With only six lanes, there were no extra lanes for the swimmers to warm down after their races. Instead, the meet ran three events, took a pause for swimmers to cool down, and then resumed.
“I had the 200 breast as the first event and then the 200 freestyle two events later with no break in between, so I didn’t get to warm down or warm up before my 200 freestyle,” Andegeko said. “So I definitely think that affected my performance in the 200 freestyle.”
The Chargers have one meet left before the G-MAC championship, competing in a tri meet against Malone University and Fairmont State University in Canton, Ohio, Jan. 24.
