A tune-up is all the Saint Mary's swimming team needs.
Conference rivals Olivet and Kalamazoo proved to be a real challenge for the Belles in their three-way meet last Friday. Olivet defeated the Belles 126-95, and Kalamazoo beat Saint Mary's 137-98. The Belles now stand at 0-5 in the MIAA standings.
"Kalamazoo has always been a strong team and a good challenger," Saint Mary's swimming coach Greg Petcoff said. "But it was Olivet that came to this meet ready to compete."
Olivet slightly defeated Kalamazoo 121-118 to finish the meet 2-0.
Despite finishing 0-2 last Friday, Saint Mary's came away from the meet with several notable highlights, as two swimmers were considered the top performers of the meet. Sophomore Kelly Nelis and senior Megan Ramsey both finished first in two events. Nelis won the 200-yard freestyle in 2:3.34 seconds and the 500-yard freestyle in 5:31. Ramsey won the 100-yard butterfly in 1:10.56 and the 1000-yard freestyle in 10:57.02. Another key performance for Saint Mary's was Sarah Nowak's 200-meter individual medley in a time of 2:23, the fifth fastest time in Saint Mary's history.
"[Nowak] was neck and neck with the girl who finished first the last 50 yards, and [Nowak] has only been training for three weeks," said Petcoff.
Freshman Bridget Lebiedz finished fourth in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:05.32 and sixth in the 100-yard butterfly. Senior Julie McGranahan finished fifth in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:04.44. Junior Ashley Dyer finished fifth in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 1:13.88 and had a season best swim in the 50-yard freestyle as well.
"The real battle for the girls was bringing it home," Petcoff said. "A small adjustment to their workouts will help us to come back and overtake [Olivet and Kalamazoo] at the conference meet."
In preparation for the Belles' next meet against Alma (0-5 in the MIAA) Saturday, the Belles will be bringing back some of the more intense and longer sets training. The team plans to train for multiple races and not emphasize just one event for each swimmer. After the adjustment, Saint Mary's hopes for season-best times at the MIAA Championships next month.
