ELSAH, ILL. -- Principia College swam against two teams that had fast swimmers, Lindenwood and Millikin University. The meet was both stimulating and enjoyable with impressive individual races and a game for our spectators during one of the breaks between events. The winners of that game got a free shake at our pub on campus. The games were a pleasant distraction but the real action came in the races and dives.
The Lady Panthers expressed this action like attitude in their first race of the meet, the 200 Medley Relay. Catherine Joyner (SO), Kendall McMurray (JR), Kelsey Meidell (SR), and Laura Perry (SO) all swam this event with McMurray swimming a seasonal best split of 40.22 and Meidell getting a lifetime best split of 33.36. Joyner got a seasonal best time in this relay with her lead off time of 40.45. Mak Thompson (SO) continued the action with swimming a lifetime best time of 2:17.43 in the 200 free. Joyner and McMurray also did well but in the 100 back. Joyner got an unshaved lifetime best of 1:27.00 while McMurray got a seasonal best time of 1:24.08. Meidell went on to get another seasonal best time of 1:21.35 but in the 100 breast. Joanna Patzwald (FR) swam the 50 free and got her seasonal best for the event with 27.18. Meidell also did well but in the 100 free by getting a seasonal best time of 1:02.04. Later during the meet, the 200 back was interesting to watch because Joyner was the only woman swimming the event, an infrequent occurrence. She swam with the men and as a result got a lifetime best time of 3:04.67. Patzwald helped the 400 free relay, the last event of the meet, get third because of her seasonal best split of 1:00.40.
The meet ended well with the men getting 2nd and the women 3rd. Even though the women got third, they did so well in their events that they were only eight-four points away from getting 2nd. The coaching staff were proud of the men and women Principia team's accomplishments. There were some very impressive swims and diver Matt Poulos did well too. Next weekend, come and see us take on Lindenwood University and Illinois College. This coming meet will be on Saturday, 2/5/2011, at 1 pm.
