ELSAH, IL – The women's swimming and diving team took on Maryville and Quincy University in the first home meet of the new year. They were defeated by Quincy 84 – 101 but had close battle with Maryville before losing 84 – 89. After two hard weeks of training, the women responded with solid performances and a variety of season bests. Despite all the hard work, many of their times were close to their season best times from earlier in the fall.
Freshman
Allegra Pierce earned the first season best of the meet in the 1000 Free event. She actually swam a season best for her 500 Free (6:00.70) on her way to a 12:11.88 final time. Sophomore
Amanda Loudon continued the bests with her season best in the 200 Free (2:37.38). The 50 Free saw senior
Dani Mc Kenzie take the win in 26.17.
1 meter diving saw both sophomores,
Caidi Gillett and
Rachael Schueler, earn season best scores. Gillett won the event with a 159.25 which was also her best score ever for a 6 dive meet. In the 3 meter event, Gillett again scored well with a 178.58 which was a season and best ever score for a 6 dive meet. It also put her less than a ¼ point from making the all-time Top 10 at Principia.
Back in the swimming events, Mc Kenzie took her second win of the meet with a 1:06.37 in the 100 Fly. Pierce earned a second season best time, this time in the 100 Free. After a very close race, she finished second in 58.34. The women finished the meet with a 2:10.84 200 Free relay. Junior
Hannah Schlomann led off with a season best 50 Free of 34.03. Freshmen
Yasmin Mendoza and
Gwen Battram were next to go, followed by Pierce as the anchor.
While most of the times were not season bests, the team was coming off two hard weeks of training and they were an improvement from the previous week.
The team will be back in action on Friday, Jan 22 as Hendrix College comes to Elsah for a dual meet at 6 pm. Then the women will take on 9 other teams in the annual Panther Invitational on Saturday at 1 pm.
