The Lawrence Men’s and Women’s Swim teams traveled to Carthage College in Kenosha to compete in the Wisconsin Private College Championships. Four other teams competed and included the hosts Carthage and teams that Lawrence will compete against again at the conference championship in Carroll, Ripon, and Beloit. This was the last event before the Midwest Conference Championships starting on February 13.
The members of the women’s 400 freestyle team led the way for the Vikings. The members accounted for two of the Vikings’ three titles as well as four top three finishes. The members of that team included sophomore Paige Witter, junior Emily Flack and freshman Emei Thompson and Eryn Blagg. The team took first place in the relay and finished with a time of 3:47.93.
Witter grabbed another title for the Vikings when she finished first in the individual 500 yard freestyle and finished with a time of 5:22.49. Witter also took second in the 100 butterfly finishing in 1:03.73 and third in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:20.31.
The freshmen also had a good showing in the individual races with Flack racing to second place in the 200 backstroke and was just over two seconds behind the winner. Thompson took third in the 500 freestyle by finishing in 5:29.86. She was less than a second behind the second place finisher who finished in 5:29.25.
Another freshman helped the Vikings take home a third title when Foley Van Lieshout won the 200 individual medley in 2:20.05. The women’s team took third place overall in the competition finishing with 145.3 points.
On the key to their success Witter said, “We have had a long month of hard practices, and going into this meet we knew we would need to support each other to be able to perform well.”
On the men’s side, the top performer was freshman Travis Charlow. He had the team’s best finish when he took third in 100 backstroke. He also claimed fourth in the 200 backstroke. The men’s team took fifth place.
Overall, Lawrence finished in third place in the combined team standings. Carthage took advantage of being at home and claimed all three team titles.
The Vikings will finish the season when they compete in the Midwest Conference Championships. The Championships will be held at Grinnell College in Iowa.
When asked about expectations at conference, Charlow commented, “The expectation is going out and racing and having fun as a team. We have been on each other’s backs all year about working hard and this is the final test of that hard work.”
Regardless of the outcome at conference, the Vikings clearly have a very bright future with so many talented young members.