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Swimming and diving teams ready to rock at conference

by Marisa Whitley

It was a very good Friday the 13th for the Grinnell men's and women's swimming and diving teams this month. The Pioneers had a very strong performance at the two-day Grinnell Invitational, which took place on Jan. 13 and 14.

The women's and men's teams both finished in second place, which was a considerable feat with a total of 10 women?s teams and seven men's teams at the invitational, including some Division II schools.

"It's good to have the higher divisions to compete against," said diver Andie Shrager '08. "It really makes us motivated to do well."

Diver Sarah Stayer '06 won the diving competition on both days of the invitational with scores of 400.00 for 11 dives on Friday and 351.25 for 10 dives on Saturday.

The swimmers performed very well both days. For the women, Lucy McCormick ?06 came in first in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:34.99. Amanda Keledjian '08 had a very strong performance, coming in first in the 100 butterfly, 200 IM and the 200 butterfly.

Peter Brown '06 won the men's 50 freestyle with a time of 22.41 and was also a member of the 400 freestyle relay team along with Kevin Wood '07, Dan Neely '09 and Nate Wittnam '09, who took first for the relay at the invitational. Matt Remissong '08 brought in two wins for Grinnell in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

The team continued its annual tradition of taking a trip to Florida for a week of training at the beginning of winter break.

After training, the team went on to swim in three more meets during the winter break. The men did very well, taking first place at the Connecticut College meet in Florida on Jan. 6 with a score of 107-98, and coming in first with 547 points at the Carleton Invitational on Jan. 21. The men were defeated by Luther College on Jan. 20, 81-143.

The women fell to Connecticut 75-130, but defeated Luther 121-102. The team came in second at the Carleton Invitational with a score of 526.5 points.

The teams will compete in their last meet of the regular season at Coe College on Jan. 28. The Midwest Conference Championships begin on Feb. 10.

"I think we're going to beat [Coe] by about 10,000 points," said Schrager.

Grinnell has performed well against Coe in the past and the swimmers' strong performances over the break have built up their confidence for their last meet and the upcoming conference championships.

"We're going to blow the conference away, basically," said Zach Wegermann '08.

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