Elsah, IL – After some strong swims in the morning, the Principia College women's swim team set themselves up for a strong night with lots of opportunities to improve and score points. While the team finds itself down 190 – 324 at the halfway point of the meet, they swam and competed well. With "bests" in almost every swim, the women continued to show improvements. They swam to 8 lifetime bests and had 2 event wins.
Look at the Meet: Finals started off strong as the relay team of sophomore Cami Abadie, junior captain
Sanaya Baldauf, freshman
Kassie Christensen and senior
Lydia Pierce swimming a 1:50.95 for the 200 Free Relay. Abadie swam a lifetime best 27.76 50 to lead off. Baldauf swam a season best 29.10 on the next leg. Christensen was next with a lifetime best 28.19 and the team was anchored by Pierce in a lifetime best 25.90.
After a short break, Abadie came back to win the 200 IM in a season-best 2:25.36. Next up, Baldauf improved from her morning swim in the 500 to finish second in 5:53.77, a season best time. Abadie was back in the water for her second event and improved her time from the morning in the 100 Back as well to finish second in 1:02.50, a strong season best.
Pierce was up next in the 200 Breast. After breaking the school record in the morning, she couldn't quite match the same pace at night but still won the event in 2:38.07. Christensen was able to improve not only her time but her placing from the morning in the 100 Free, moving from 4
th seed to 3
rd with a lifetime best 1:04.54. Sophomore
Heather Savoye also dropped time from her morning swim in her 200 Fly to improve her lifetime best to 2:51.17.
The women finished the night with the 400 Medley relay where the team of Abadie, Savoye, Christensen and Hull when a 5:00.57. The team swam to 3 lifetime bests. After a leadoff from Abadie, Savoye went a 1:25.51 100 Breast split for a lifetime best. Christensen then went her lifetime best 1:15.95 100 Fly split and then Hull anchored with a lifetime best 1:15.59 100 Free relay split. It was a strong finish to a long strong day of swimming.
Next up: The team will be back in the water in the morning for the 2
nd day of swimming. The prelims will start at 10:30a.
