ELSAH, IL – The men's and women's swimming teams concluded their season by hosting the Liberal Arts Championships, Wednesday, Feb 8 – Saturday, Feb 11. The teams both finished in 5
th place while swimming to 26 new lifetime best times. The teams started a little slowly but came on strong during the second half of the meet to finish on a high note. It was an exciting 3+ days of swimming for all the teams and a great way to finish off the season.
Day 1 – Finals
The first day of the meet started on Wednesday evening with swimming the 800 Free relays. The women swam a 9:25.70 lead by a trio of lifetime best times. Senior
Heather Savoye led off the relay in 2:18.48. Fellow senior and captain
Camille Abadie then swam a lifetime best 2:11.57 split. Next up, junior captain
Kassie Christensen add her lifetime best split of 2:25.21 followed by junior
Kannon Gill with a 2:30.61 lifetime best. It was good fast start to the meet.
Day 2 – Prelims
Day 2 saw the start of individual swims and the team hoping to continue the fast swimming from the night before. While the team swam well, they were not quite at the same level. Savoye opened the events in the 500 with a season best 6:17.70. Abadie swim a season best 2:24.65 in her 200 IM to place 11
th overall and earn a swim at night. The 50 Free saw the rest of the team swim. Christensen swam a season best 28.03 while sophomore James Ives and freshman Luc Savoye both swam lifetime bests – 33.19 and 24.50 respectively. While all the swims were strong swims they were a little off from what was expected.
With one individual swim and 2 relays, the team was expecting to get back on track at night.
Day 2 – Finals
The Finals would see 2 relays for the women and one individual swim and the hope for the team to get back on track with lifetime bests. The momentum looked good in the women's 200 Free relay as the team of Savoye, Gill, Christensen and sophomore
Avery Hanson swam a 1:53.76 composed of 2 lifetime and one season best time. Savoye led off with a season best 28.81. Christensen and Hanson closed out the relay with lifetime best splits – 27.33 and 26.79 respectively.
Abadie then dropped over a second from her morning swim time to finish 11
th in the 200 IM in 2:23.13 and another season best time.
The meet wrapped up with the women's 400 Medley relay where Abadie, Savoye, Christensen and Hanson swam to 3 season best and one lifetime best times to finish in 4:36.63. Abadie led off with a 1:02.88 100 Back season best time. Savoye then split a lifetime best 1:21.63 100 Breast. Christensen swim a season best 1:13.68 100 Fly to set up the anchor by Hanson in a season best 58.53.
While there was plenty of season best times during the session, lifetime bests are what they were looking for and the team was just a little off from those. Day 3 would provide stronger opportunities for those as the team would begin to swim their "prime" events.
Day 3 – Prelims
Day 3 would see many of the swimmers swim events they were focused on as their prime events, so the expectations were high for more lifetime bests.
Savoye once again got the team started off, this time in the 400 IM where her 5:39.76 was a season best time, just missing her lifetime best. It also placed her 9
th and thus earning a swim at night. Christensen and Hanson swam the 100 Fly next and both earned swims at night placing 11
th and 12
th respectively. Christensen's 1:12.17 was a new season best while Hanson swam a 1:12.40.
Luc Savoye brought home the first lifetime best of the session when he went a 2:07.54 in this 200 Free. Ives swam the next lifetime best time of the session with his 1:37.42 100 Breast time that earned him 12
th place and swim at night.
The session wrapped up with the 100 Back where Abadie swam another season best with a 1:02.51 to place 5
th and earn her 2
nd night swim of the meet.
Again, plenty of season best times and some night swims earned but the feeling was a bit muted as the lifetime best times weren't yet coming. Finals would provide plenty of opportunities though with 5 individual and 1 relay swim.
Day 3 – Finals
The tide began to turn for the team right from the first swim and the lifetime best times started to come thick and fast. Savoye started things off in the 400 IM with a new lifetime best time of 5:32.58 – a massive drop from the morning time – to finish in 9
th place overall. Next up in the 100 Fly both Christensen and Hanson swam to lifetime best times – 1:10.66 for Hanson and 1:11.63 for Christensen. They finished 10
th and 11
th respectively.
The lifetime bests continued into the men's 100 Breast where Ives swam a 1:37.35 to finish in 12
th place. Abadie then went a 1:02.38 for a new season best in her 100 back to finish 5
th.
The 200 Medley relay saw a mix of season and lifetime bests. Abadie opened the relay with a 29.97 season best 50 Back. Gill then swam a lifetime best 39.22 50 Breast split followed by a season best 30.43 50 fly split by Hanson. Christensen than came home in a lifetime best 27.56 50 Free. In this one session the team swam more lifetime bests (6) than in both sessions combined from the previous day (5). It looked like the team was starting to hit it's stride.
Day 4 – Prelims
On the final day of the meet the team was looking to continue the momentum they had created the night before and continue to swim lifetime best times. Abadie started out the session with a season best 2:14.44 200 Back to place 5
th and earn a spot in the night finals. The 100 Free saw 3 new lifetime best times. Gill swam a lifetime best 1:08.90 followed by two season best times from Christensen (1:04.09) and Hanson (59.84). Then Luc Savoye and Ives added two more lifetime best times – 56.26 and 1:16.55 respectively.
Gill added to the lifetime best total with a 3:13.40 200 Breast swim, just about 20 minutes after her previous one, which also qualified her in 12
th for a night swim.
H Savoye then pulled off back-to-back lifetime best swims. First, she swam a 2:50.74 200 Fly to qualify 7
th for a night swim. She was joined at night by Christensen in 9
th with a 3:00.29 swim. Then after a break, Savoye added her second lifetime best in less than an hour with a 21:50.37 mile swim.
The momentum had continued into the morning swims and the team was set up for some great opportunities at night.
Day 4 – Finals
The final session of the meet had the team swimming 4 individual events and one relay. The team had hung in there through some early sessions that had not gone as hoped and was now poised to finish the meet on a high note and bring home more lifetime best times. Abadie started the night off with a 2:13.54 200 Back season best time, just missing her school record and lifetime best time, for a 5
th place finish. Gill then dropped more time in her 200 Breast to swim a 3:12.14 for a new lifetime best and a 12
th place finish. H Savoye and Christensen then both went lifetime best times in the 200 Fly. Savoye went a 2:46.24 to finish in 7
th and Christensen went a 2:56.14 to finish in 9
th.
The 400 Free relay saw a couple of lifetime best times to finish the meet. Hanson led off with a 1:00.38. Abadie finished her collegiate career by breaking a minute with a 59.68 100 free relay split and a lifetime best. Gill then split a 1:09.36 for a lifetime best split and Savoye anchored the relay for her last collegiate swim in a season best 1:01.28.
The final 3 sessions brought home 17 of the 26 lifetime best times the team swam. Clearly the team stuck with the plan and kept swimming hard despite some early disappointments. Their resiliency paid off with some great swims to finish out the meet. The team will head into the off season feeling better about what they accomplished at the meet but also knowing there is more work to do.
