The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams took third place at the Calvin Invite last Saturday.
While some students have been scrambling to piece together their final papers and projects, others have also been tracking miles in the pool. Since late October, Calvin’s swimming and diving teams have competed in just under ten meets in total.
The men’s team won meets against Olivet College (Oct. 29), Wayne State University (Nov. 18) and Alma College (Nov. 19). They also finished in second place in the four team Calvin Quad meet in early November.
At the Calvin Invite, the men’s swimming and diving team recorded 1,238.5 points for third place, finishing ahead of four other schools and behind two NCAA Division II schools — Grand Valley State University, which won the meet with just under 2,000 points, and Northern Michigan University.
The three day extravaganza of swimming caps and wall touches. In the first men’s event, the 1650-yard freestyle, first-year student Brian Goins finished in tenth place with a time of 17:00:04. The group of sophomore Nathan Olberding, senior Brett Stoughton, junior Max DeYoung and first-year student Tim Randall finished fourth in the 800 yard free relay. Calvin finished the day 28 points behind second-place Grand Valley.
In the second day, Ben Holstege broke Calvin’s school record in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 50.18. The gap between the top two schools and Calvin was stretched on day two, as did the gap between Calvin and fourth place.
A highlight from day three was a second place finish by the Holstege brothers, Stoughton and sophomore Jared Britton in the 200-yard medley. Calvin stayed in third throughout the day would end there as well.
It was a similar story for the women’s squad, which also finished third behind Northern Michigan and GVSU as well. A second-place finish in the 800-yard free relay got Calvin off to a quick start on Thursday, behind efforts of sophomores Anna Serino, Madelyn Smith and Kendall Murphy and junior Abby Van Harn.
Friday was a continuation of the good effort put forth on the first day, with several notable finishes coming from individual and group events. Van Harn took second in the 200-yard freestyle and won the 50-yard freestyle. Van Harn was also recently named the MIAA Swimmer of the Week for the third time this year.
Third-place finishes for both teams is still an impressive feat considering the circumstances, and Calvin will have those performances to bounce off from when they compete again after Christmas break.
