The swim teams started their official season on Friday with a home meet against Grand Valley State University. GVSU won both the men’s and women’s competition with the scores being 163-77 and 157-83 respectively.
For the men, junior Andrew Mitchell, freshman Johnson Cochran, senior Mark Rushlow and freshman Mitchell Schroder took second in the 200-yard medley relay. In the 1000-yard freestyle, freshman Aaron Venema took first.
In the 50-yard freestyle, Rushlow and Schroder took third and fourth respectively. Mitchell also placed in the 100-yard free, taking second. Cochran took the podium in the 100-yard breaststroke in 59.31, 13 hundredths of a second faster than the next swimmer. Junior Jon Dennison finished second in diving on the one-meter board with 234.55 points and took first in the three meter with 226.85.
On the women’s side, sophomore Kathryn Wrobel and senior Shelby Cloyd took first and second in the 1000-yard freestyle. Senior Stephie Fox took second in the 200-yard freestyle. She also took third in the 100-yard freestyle. Freshman Michaela Rookus took second in the 50-yard freestyle.
More second-place finishers for the Knights were sophomore Alexi Scott and senior Rachel Colasurdo in the 200-yard IM and the 100-yard butterfly respectively.
Senior Kristy Kinzer took third in the 100-yard backstroke. Cloyd and junior Margaret Rechel finished second and third in the 500-yard freestyle. Senior Elizabeth Counsell and Scott took second and third in the 100-yard breaststroke. In diving, senior Sam Klaasen took second on the one-meter with 245.40 points and second in the three-meter with 257.60.
On Saturday, the Knights traveled to Olivet for the first MIAA competition of the year. The men won 162-124 while the women won 197-83.
For the men, freshman Caleb Meindertsma took first in the 1000 freestyle. Venema won the 200 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. Mitchell won the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke. Cochran won the 100 breaststroke, Rushlow took the 100 butterfly and sophomore Travis Vincent grabbed the gold in the 200 IM. Schroder, Mitchell, Vennema and sophomore Alex Baumann teamed up to win the 400 freestyle relay. Mitchell, Cochran, Rushlow and Baumann took the 400 medley relay.
The women took 13 first-place finishes. Fox won the 1000 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Rookus won the 100 and 200 breaststroke. Cloyd took the 100 and 200 butterfly. Wrobel won the 200 freestyle. Sophomore Betsy Otten took the 100 backstroke, while sophomore Erika Waugh took the 200 backstroke. Rechel won the 500 freestyle. The 400 medley relay was won by the Knights’ team of Waugh, Rookus, Cloyd and Wrobel.
Klaasen won both diving competitions, the one meter with a score of 234 and the three meter with 252.25.
“[It was] good to get our first MIAA wins,” coach Dan Gelderloos commented. “[We] had some good swims throughout our meet, although our main focus was preparation and enthusiasm. [Those are] getting better, but [there’s] still a lot of work to do.”
The Knights compete again on Nov. 2 at Alma College for a conference dual meet.
