Swimming and diving teams wrap Florida training trip with double dual
The Olivet College men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have been training for the last week in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Comets took a break from the training today to compete against Rollins (Fla.) College and Carleton (Minn.) College at The International Swimming Hall of Fame Pool.
The Olivet College men's and women's swimming and diving teams have been training for the last week in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Comets took a break from the training today to compete against Rollins (Fla.) College and Carleton (Minn.) College at The International Swimming Hall of Fame Pool. The Olivet women split the dual, beating Rollins (76-45) and losing to Carleton (87-35). The Comet men dropped both duals, 64-58 to Carleton and 77-45 to Rollins.
For the women, the lone individual winner was freshman Jessica Howard (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead) in the 1,000-yard freestyle. They also posted eight second-place finishes, including both relays.
Senior Amy Johnson (Gaylord) took second in the 100 (:54.43) and 200 (2:01.96) freestyle. The rest of the individual second-place finishes were by senior Lisa Egelkraut (Battle Creek/Central) in the 500 freestyle (5:34.20), senior Kalee Redder (Grandville/Jenison) in the 50 free (:26.02); senior Lauren Siedlik (Livonia/Churchill) in the 50 breaststroke (:33.81) and junior Jackie Taylor (Plainwell) in the 100 backstroke (1:04.79).
The 200 medley relay team of Taylor, Siedlik, sophomore Jami Lingbeek (Plainwell) and Johnson touched the wall second in 1:56.30. The 200 freestyle relay quartet of Johnson, freshman Caitlin Lohr (Holland/Hamilton), freshman Emily LaPorta (Hamilton) and Redder finished second by .07 seconds with a time of 1:42.94.
Despite the losses, the Olivet men had four first-place finishes. Sophomore Mike Harden (St. Johns) was a double winner. He won the 50 freestyle (:22.02) and 50 butterfly (:24.20). The other two gold medal finishes were by sophomore Kellen Beckwith (Farmington Hills/North Farmington) in the 100 backstroke (:55.39) and freshman Austin Munn (Pinckney) in the 100 freestyle (:49.94).
The Comets also posted runner-up finishes in the distance freestyle events. In the 500, freshman Michael Conger (Plymouth) clocked-in at 4:57.20), and in the 1,000, sophomore Rick Kinsey (Chelsea) touched the wall in 10:29.43.
Munn, Harden, freshman Jon Bachman (Battle Creek/Lakeview) and Beckwith teamed together for a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay and their time was 1:29.66.
Olivet will return to Michigan Tuesday and then be idle until Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009, when it travels for a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association dual meet at Alma College.