Over the weekend, our swim and dive team went to Kenosha to compete at Carthage College in the Private College Championships. “These championships are a really big deal,” coach Andrew Fleek said. “This meet is important for the team every year because of the quality of competition and the demanding event lineup which requires the swimmers to perform up to four events. It is our last opportunity to swim some of the championship events.” Luckily, our team did not disappoint.
The men did well, coming in fourth overall with 63 points. Sophomore Max Stahl took third in the 200 backstroke at 2:06.20 and fifth in the 100 backstroke at 57.96 seconds. Junior Travis Charlow won fourth in the 500 freestyle at 5:20.80.
For the women, sophomore Emmi Zheng got two second-place finishes and a third place. She got second in the breaststroke at 1:10.46 and second in the 200 breastroke at 2:36.17. Sophomore Sarah Schweickart obtained second in the 200 individual medley at 2:21.87 and Zheng was right behind for third at 2:22.23. Senior Paige Witter got a title with her first place win in the 500 freestyle at 5:27.05. Witter led the team contingent in her event, with Vikings holding four out of the top six places. Freshman Elise Riggle was third at 5:32.02 and also took second in the 400 individual medley at 4:56.52. Senior Danielle Millin also captured a title in her event, the 200-yard backstroke, at 2:18.72. Our 400 medley relay team got second at 4:12.12 and the 400 freestyle relay team won third place in 3:52.08. Our lady-Vikings came in third with 143 points to finish strong.
Overall, the Vikings got to third place in their combined team standings with a total of 206 points. Carthage took the championship title with a total of 641 points. As coach Fleek summarized, “Our team had an outstanding meet and the majority of our swimmers had best times. Heading into the Midwest Conference Championships—which are Feb. 17 through the 19—I think our biggest strength is our work ethic: our swimmers are simply willing and able to out-work other teams.” Make sure to support our Vikings as they head into their final meet in February!