Swim teams end season on high note at MIAA championships

SCOTT WEIR

Staff Writer

The Alma College Swimming and Diving team concludes another season with a strong performance at the conference meet held February 19-23 at East Grand Rapids High School. Although the points and standings don’t seem to reflect this, the team still did very well with many strong individual performances.

The men’s team had a difficult season this year and unfortunately they finished last place in both the conference meet and dual meet standings. Nick Dunkle (06) said, “The team swam really well and most of us had season and lifetime best swims although we’re competing in a conference with Hope and Kalamazoo who are in the hunt for the national championship every year. So our record doesn’t really reflect our ability and most of us were pretty happy with the way we swam.” Dunkle placed 7th in the consolation finals of the 100-yard backstroke.

Also finishing strong on the men’s side was Brent Gostomski (07) who posted a time of 0:53.61 to take 4th place in the 100-yard butterfly. Other top twelve point scorers include Cole Hughes (06), Brandon Gostomski (03), Lucas Livingston (07), Kyle Ritsema (05), and Will Heyd (05).

Head Coach Greg Baadte said for both the women and men, “Individually, we did well at the conference meet and had 90 % best times. That was phenomenal considering that some of our swimmers weren’t able to swim for parts of the season due to injuries.”

The women’s team bettered their dual meet standing of 6th place to beat out both St. Mary’s and Albion for a 5th place conference meet finish. Julie Fantone (04) placed a new school record in the 1650-yard freestyle, which earned her a second place finish at the meet. She said, “We went in sort of as the underdog and we had only beaten one team going into conferences. It was a good way to end the season for every one. It was a fun meet.” Fantone also placed 4th in the 500-yard freestyle.

Many other ladies’ earned top six finishes in their respective events including Stephanie Druskinis (05), Lynsay Masters (04), Brianne Hauser (05), and Liz Smith (04). Jaci Wilkie (06) also added points to the teams score with a 9th place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke.

The men’s team with graduate one person this year, Colin McLaughlin (04), and they are hoping this will provide an increases in the number of swimmers for next year. The women’s side will be a little bit harder to replace as they lose five members, many of which are consistent point scorers.

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