Elsah, IL - The Principia College women's swim team was back in the water after a long break and an intense training camp to take on Maryville University in their home pool in a Queen of the Stroke meet. In this meet, each swimmer swam 3 different differences of their chosen stroke. Then the swimmer with the fastest combined time earned the title: Queen of that Stroke. The strokes that were contested were: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, sprint free, IM and distance free. In addition, the meet was contested in short course meters (SCM) rather than the typical yards. It was a different sort of meet to get the winter part of their season started. It resulted in some great racing and one Queen –
Heather Savoye in the IM. There was no team score.
Savoye was the star of the meet as she swept the IM events. Both the 100 and 200 IM events came down to a sprint finish with Savoye narrowly wining both. She ended up with a more comfortable win in the 400 IM. Her times in the 200 and 400 IM, when converted to yard times, were lifetime best times.
Other women who performed well:
- Junior captain Camille Abadie swam to a converted season best in her 50 Back and swam a lifetime best 100 Back (SCM) – 1:13.77
- Sophomore Kannon Gill swam to two converted season best times: the 50 Free and 100 Free. She also swam a great 200 Free for the first time ever.
- Sophomore Kassie Christensen swam her first 200 Fly ever and did a great job.
It was a good start to the winter meet season. The team enjoyed the different format and lengths but look forward to seeing how their training converts to yard times. They will be back in the water on Friday, Jan 21 at 6 pm as they host the Sprint Invitational. They will come back the next day, Saturday, Jan 22 at 1 pm for the Panther Invitational, also at home.
