Albion, Mich. — The women's swim and dive team took on the Britons of Albion on Saturday (Jan. 27). The young Aquinas team had a valiant effort but was unable to upset the established Albion program. AQ still managed to secure a healthy point value as the meet finished, 160-119.
Meet Background:
This was the Saints last regular-season meet before our conference championship meet, so the coaches agreed to run a 16-event meet format with 50s and 100s of strokes for a more sprint-oriented meet. Several athletes were vying to earn A relay spots and make final race preparations for the conference meet in less than two weeks.
Women's Team Highlights:
Freshman
Meghan Hincher claimed the first individual event win on the women's side in the 200 freestyle (2:08.28), closely followed by sophomore teammate
Lily Heath in second (2:11.91).
Freshman standout
Amelia Edens threw down the most impressive race of the day by edging out the competition in the 100 fly with a 59.53 - the second-fastest time in Aquinas history to her own record set in November.
Sophomore diver
Sarah Colvin finished fourth overall in 1M diving.
Edens stole the show in the 500 freestyle (5:33.75), finishing in first place by nearly 20 seconds. Heath finished in third with a 5:56.30.
The women's 200 freestyle relay of
Kennedy Pierce,
Claire Hines,
Chloe Boivin and Edens closed out the meet on a high note, taking the win. The B freestyle relay of
Lauren Mezeske,
Ellie Hudson,
Katie Sanders and
Ella Althaver finished in third place, scoring valuable supporting team points.
Here is what Coach Hepp had to say about the meet, "This was a really fun meet because we had very strong competitors in every event. The frontrunner changed after every race and dive, so we were on edge the entire meet! As the last regular-season meet of the year, Coach Brownell from Albion and I decided to run a rare sprint-meet format to get the energy up and to see some speed going into our championship season."
"Our athletes showed up to compete, and while not every race went our way, we showed our depth and strength on both the men's and women's side. I'm ecstatic that our men won the meet by one point: every single swimmer from the top to bottom put everything on the line to win as a team. [Men's swimmer] Troy Borrero really picked up the team's energy with his national qualification on the 3M board! I'm really proud of how he and the team responded to pressure."
"While the women didn't win the meet, they showed up to race and had some courageous finishes. At the end of the day, our young team held our own against a very established team with strong history. We have so much more left in us, so we're excited to begin tapering and compete in our conference championship in February!"
Up Next
The Saints will return to action on Thursday (Feb. 8) through Saturday (Feb. 10) for the KCAC Championship held at the Elkhart Aquatic Center, Ind.
