Swimming keeps up unbeaten sreak with weekend sweep

by Josh Cooley

Grinnell’s men’s and women’s swim teams hold the top seed in over one third of the events in the MWC in which they have competed.

Many of these performances were posted by the Pioneers during the weekend before Thanksgiving break. On Friday, Nov. 21, Grinnell pulled out victories over Loras College on both the men’s and women’s sides. The men defeated Loras 129-102 while the women secured a 100 point margin of victory, winning 171-71. The results on the men’s side were closer than Coach Erin Hurley expected, but she was pleased with the men’s team’s performance.

“[In the 400 Medley Relay] Gene Petersen [’06] , Braden Pence [’05], Kevin Wood [’07] and Peter Brown [’06] were less than two seconds off the pool record,” she said. “This relay has never been this fast at this point in our season. Dan Karney [’04] continues to make good time drops in the distance events, as well as Gene Peterson in the 200 back and 50 free. The one-two finish by Brown and Wood in the 100 free, along with their quick times, was also impressive.”

She also noted that Pence and Nate Kimball ’07 had particularly strong swims in the 400 free relay; they swam the third and fourth legs respectively and helped their relay team out-touch that of Loras by .03 seconds in the meet’s final event.

On the women’s side, Rachel Sellon ’04 won the 1,000 free and the 200 fly.

Erinn Croco ’07 and Emma Samuels ’04 took first and second in the 50 free respectively, with Croco posting the 10th fastest time in Grinnell history in this event.

The men had an easier time on Saturday against the University of Chicago, winning 174-102. Though their margin of victory was small, the women’s team pulled out a clutch victory 154-138.

“At Chicago, we did not swim as well,” said Hurley. “I think there are several reasons for that... coming off the meet the night before and not cooling down enough, as well as just being tired,” she said.

Next week both teams take their unbeaten records on the road to the Mutual of Omaha Invite in Omaha, Neb. Hurley expects the meet to be very competitive, with schools representing South Dakota, Colorado, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Both Division II and Division III colleges will be competing, including Truman State, last year’s Division II National Champions on the women’s side. Since the competition is a preliminary finals meet, the swimmers will compete in many different events, and the divers will get to perform a full diving list of 11 dives rather than the usual six. Despite the stiff competition, Hurley hopes both teams will defeat as many Division III schools as possible.