Women’s swimming team in fourth-place after second day of 2012 MIAA Championships

HOLLAND, Mich. – The Olivet College women's swimming team is in fourth-place after the second day of the 2012 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Championships, hosted by Hope College and held inside the Holland Community Aquatic Center.

The Comets have scored 155 points and are only 19.5 points behind third-place Kalamazoo College. Hope leads the field with 255 points, which is only 1.5 points ahead of defending league champion Calvin College. The other team scores are Alma College in fifth-place, 128; Saint Mary's (Ind.) College in sixth, 124; and Albion College in seventh, 112.

In tonight's first event, 200 freestyle relay, Olivet's team of senior Caitlin Lohr (Holland/Hamilton), junior Jana Blodgett (Sturgis), sophomore Alivia Hammond (Byron Center) and freshman Jazmin Johnson (Grand Rapids/Northview) finished in second-place by one-hundredth of a second,  1:38.17 to 1:38.18. Lohr led off the relay with a 23.79 second split, which is an NCAA Championships conditional qualifying time.

In the 50 freestyle, Lohr was the runner-up with a time of 24.03 seconds, and Johnson finished fourth in 24.97 seconds. In the 500 freestyle, senior Jessica Howard (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead) and freshman Shana Bush (Alma) both swam in the consolation finals, and overall placed 11th and 12th at 5:21.64 and 5:22.43, respectively.

In the 200 individual medley, sophomore Kristin Long (Pemberville, Ohio/Notre Dame Academy) finished in eighth-place with a time of 2:18.34, while freshman Kaitlin Smith (Port Huron) was 10th at 2:18.74.

The 400 medley relay team of Hammond, Smith, Long and Howard placed fifth with a time of 4:15.15.

Action continues tomorrow and Saturday. Friday's events get underway with preliminaries in 12 swimming events, six for each gender, at 10 a.m., and finals in those same events at 5:30 p.m.