ELSAH, IL – The Principia College Men's and Women's Swim teams held their home opener in a two-day dual meet against Williams Baptist University. Due to the small size of both teams, the relays and scoring were combined so instead of men's and women's meet, it was a total team competition. Williams Baptist came out on top 207-156 but not without 22 "Best" swims by the home team. The meet also contained a few fun events to keep the mood light and joyful.
Friday Night
The meet started with the mixed gender 200 Medley relay. Prin had two relays competing and the butterflier from each relay swam a "best" time. Junior captain
Kassie Christensen split a season best 30.75 for her 50 Fly while in the other relay, senior
Heather Savoye swam an in-season lifetime best time of 32.29.
The first win of the meet came from senior captain
Camille Abadie as she won the 100 Back in 1:07.13
The next "best" swims came in the 100 Breast where freshman
Coleman Swarts swam a season best time of 1:18.50. Sophomore
James Ives also added a season best with his 1:53.63 in the same event.
The 200 Fly saw our butterfliers continue to excel as both Christensen and Savoye swam to in-season lifetime bests. Savoye swam a 2:52.27 for her best while Christensen swam a 3:04.95 for her's.
The first fun event was the Dive for Distance, where swimmers attempted to go as far as they could off of just their start and streamline. The person that went the furthest wins. Savoye and Abadie led the way for Principia with distances of 18 and 17 yards apiece.
Sophomore
Avery Hanson then won the 50 Free with a 27.50 while junior
Kannon Gill swam an in-season best 32.64.
The mixed 200 Free relay saw 4 more "best" swims. Hanson, anchoring the A relay, swam an in-season lifetime best 26.94 split. The B relay saw three best times: Gill swam a 32.48 to drop her in-season lifetime best time again, Ives split a 34.89 for a season best time and Savoye swam a 28.41 for an in-season lifetime best time.
The evening wrapped up with a 200 Kick board relay which generated a furious amount to whitewater led by Hanson and Christensen with the fastest splits of 40.07 and 41.01 respectively.
The score after the first session was Prin 83 and WBU 109.
The meet would continue on Saturday starting at noon.
Saturday
The second session opened with the 400 Medley relay where Savoye led the way with an in-season lifetime best split of 1:23.31 for 100 Breast. Roughly 15 minutes later, Savoye swam another in-season lifetime best time by going 5:49.15 in the 400 IM.
The 100 Free saw 6 out of 6 swimmers swim a best time. Hanson swam a 1:00.56 for a season best time and the win. Christensen swam a 1:08.98 for a season best and 2
nd place and Gill swam a 1:12.96 for an in-season lifetime best time. Three men also earned season best times: freshman Lucas Savoye (1:02.00), Swarts (1:03.69) and Ives (1:25.10).
The fun individual event for Saturday was a 50 underwater kick with fins. Christensen came out on top with a 28.00.
The next "best" came from Hanson with a season best 1:13.17 100 Fly. The final best of the meet came from Gill who swam a 1:13.46 100 Free relay split in the mixed 400 Free relay.
The final event of the meet was the 200 Inner tube relay. Each swimmer swam a 50 while inside an inner tube. The Prin B team won the event in 3:17.13 with the star of the relay going to Ives as he battled above his "weight" to keep the team in contention.
There was some good swimming and good fun in the first home meet of the season.
The team's next meet will be at Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday, Nov 19 at 1 pm where they will take on the hosts and national powerhouse Washington University of St Louis.
