Women’s swimming and diving team slips into fifth-place at MIAA Championships

The Olivet women's swimming and diving team slipped into fifth-place at the 2010 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships. Tomorrow's final day of action gets under way with preliminaries at 10 a.m., followed by finals at 6 p.m.

The Comets have 214 points. Defending league champion Calvin College is first with 698 points, followed by Hope College (470), Kalamazoo College (285) and Albion College (257).

The top finisher for Olivet in today's second day of competition was sophomore Megan Waschak (Battle Creek/Central), who scored 414.70 points to finish in fourth-place on the one-meter diving board. Her score was a NCAA Championships qualifying cut. Also in the diving, junior Sara Griffith (Brighton) was eighth with 357.45 points.

In swimming events, freshman Crystal Jager (Sturgis) placed sixth in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.53). Freshman Erica Schlabach (Goshen, Ind./Northridge) finished in 10th-place in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:59.60. Other placers in the 400 IM were sophomore Jessica Howard (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead), 12th (5:04.07); and freshman Jennie Plamondon (Flushing), 15th (5:20.81). Sophomore Caitlin Lohr (Holland/Hamilton) and Jager were 13th (1:01.41) and 15th (1:02.08), respectively, in the 100 butterfly.

The 200 medley relay team of freshman Chelsea Mullins (Macomb/L'Anse Creuse North), Jager, Lohr and freshman Jana Blodgett (Sturgis) was fifth (1:53.63). The 800 freestyle relay team of Howard, Schlabach, Blodgett and Plamondon touched the wall sixth in 8:28.10.