ELSAH, IL – The Principia College men's and women's swim teams welcomed five other teams to the inaugural Paul Clifford Classic from Thursday, Dec 1 to Saturday, Dec 3. The teams took advantage of the prelims/finals format and earned plenty of opportunities to race and came away with 36 "Bests". In the final team scores, the women of Illinois College came out on top with 623 points, followed by Sterling College (495), Monmouth (484), Beloit (460), Principia (288) and Williams Baptist (70). On the men's side, Monmouth College took the victory with 435 points followed by Illinois College (366), Williams Baptist (340), Sterling (399), Beloit (270) and Principia (41).
As a special tribute to Coach Clifford, a Most Improved award was given to a member of each team. The inaugural recipients were:
- Nathan Sill, Beloit College
- Pello Ruiz Erice, Illinois College
- Andrea Tapia, Monmouth College
- Lucas Savoye, Principia College
- Lana Rodriguez, Sterling College and
- Lizzy Broussard, Williams Baptist University
The meet was a great success and the team had some great swims.
Thursday
The meet started off on Thursday evening with the 800 Free Relays. The team of senior
Heather Savoye, senior captain
Camille Abadie, sophomore
Kassie Christensen and junior
Kannon Gill swam to a 9:49.51 for their relay. H Savoye lead off with a season best 2:22.99 and Gill anchored with a in-season lifetime best 2:36.83. It was a good start to the meet.
Friday Prelims
The morning started with the 200 IM and Abadie swam to a season best 2:33.75 and a third place seeding for the night. A couple of events later, Abadie was back in the water for the 100 Back where her season best 1:06.41 was good for another 3
rd place seeding. Sophomore
Avery Hanson joined Abadie in the 100 Back and qualified in 8
th place with a 1:12.39.
A couple of events after that the 100 Free saw 2 more "bests" and 2 more qualifying swims. Gill started out with an in-season lifetime best time of 1:10.34 in her 100 Free. She missed out qualifying for the night by .08 of a second! Oh, the details matter! Christensen swam a season best 1:06.32 to qualify 14
th and Hanson qualified in 4
th with a 1:00.58. The men also qualified 2 for the night in the 100 Free as sophomore
James Ives went a season best 1:22.23 to qualify in 13
th and freshman Lucas Savoye went a 1:00.42 season best to qualify in 10
th.
The 200 Fly saw H Savoye qualify in 5
th place with a 3:01.28 while Christensen swam a lifetime best 2:58.26 in her exhibition swim.
All in all the team swam 7 "bests" and qualified for 8 swims at night. A good start to the individual portion of the meet.
Friday Finals
Finals saw the meet start with the 200 Free relay. The team of H Savoye, Gill, Christensen and Hanson went a 1:56.67 to finish in 5
th place. H Savoye swam a 29.62 in-season lifetime best 50 Free to start off the relay. Gill swam a lifetime best 50 Free relay split of 30.45 followed by a season best relay split of 29.22 for Christensen. The night started on a strong note.
Abadie started the individual swims in the 200 IM where another season best time (2:33.34) earned her a 3
rd place showing. Two events later she and Hanson were back in the water for the 100 Back. Hanson's season best 1:10.63 netted her an 8
th place finish, while Abadie's 1:05.94 season best earned her a second 3
rd place finish.
In the 100 Free, Hanson then swam another season best with her 1:00.48, good for 6
th place. For the men, Ives swam another season best with a 1:20.46 and L Savoye broke a minute for the first time going 59.93!
H Savoye showed good improvement to go a 2:58.86 in her 200 Fly to finish in 5
th place.
The night finished with the 400 Medley relay where the team of Abadie, H Savoye, Christensen and Hanson swam a 4:51.60 to finish 5
th.
It was a strong first night of the meet and the team was looking for more of the same for the next day.
Saturday Prelims
Saturday saw H Savoye swim an in-season lifetime best time in her 400 IM of 5:41.39 to get the meet started off on the right foot.
Brother L Savoye followed that up with a season best 2:17.89 in his 200 Free.
The 100 Fly saw two more "bests" as Hanson swam a season best 1:12.10 and Christensen swam a 1:12.89 for an in-season lifetime best.
Two more "bests" were had in the 100 Breast. Gill went a 1:28.06 in-season lifetime best time and Ives swam a 1:45.08 season best time.
Abadie added another season best time as she qualified first in the 200 Back with a 2:19.53.
The 50 Free saw three more "bests": Gill with a lifetime best 31.26, Christensen with a season best 29.05 and L Savoye with a season best 27.65.
All told another 10 "bests" were swum and 10 slots were earned for night swims.
Saturday Finals
The final night of the meet started with the 200 Medley relay where Abadie and Christensen led the team with season best splits. Abadie swam a season best 31.54 50 Back to get the relay started. Gill split a 41.90 for 50 Breast, Hanson split a 30.87 for 50 Fly, and Christensen anchored with a season best 28.92 50 Free relay split.
Christensen earned the next "best" for the team with her 1:12.77 100 Fly in-season lifetime best time. Ives added another season best for the team with his 1:42.96 100 Breast swim. Abadie then added another season best with a 2:19.51 200 Back, good enough for 2
nd place overall.
Three more "bests" were earned in the 50 Free event. Christensen continued her good swimming with a 28.84 season best time. Ives then went a 35.17 for a season best and L Savoye went a 27.12 for his last season best time of the meet.
The meet concluded with the 400 Free relay where H Savoye, Gill, Abadie and Hanson powered to a 4:21.38 5
th place time. Both Gill and Abadie swim "best" times. Gill's 1:10.08 100 Free relay split was a lifetime best time, while Abadie earned an in-season lifetime best time of 1:03.55 for her relay split.
It was a great inaugural Clifford Classic where the teams swim well, converting 60% of their swims into a "best" swim. It was a good way to wrap up the fall portion of their season.
Up Next: After one last week of classes and practices, then exams, the team will head home for a holiday break. They will be back on campus on Jan 2 to start training camp and be back racing on Friday Jan 20 when they host 3 other teams for the Sprint Invitational starting at 6pm.
