Spring Break
Swim team remains focused on big picture
Phillip Morgan
Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Sports
The Hillsdale College Swim team was defeated by Grand Valley State University and Lewis University at their second consecutive away meet to start the season in Romeoville, Ill., Saturday.
The Chargers started out hot with junior Alicia Leduc , senior Meredith Scott, sophomore Linda Okonkowski, and freshman Sarah Leitner winning the 400 medley, with a time of 4:04.79 - 2.5 seconds ahead of the second-place team. Leduc also took first in the 100-meter backstroke, finishing at 1:01.15. Okonkowski, won the 500-meter freestyle swimming in at 5:15.92.
The squad ended up losing 175 to 87 to Grand Valley and 139 to 123 to Lewis.
"I was hoping we'd be a little more consistent," said head coach Kurt Kirner. "We were quite weak in the sprint events this weekend."
This came following the previous week's meet in which junior co-captain Alison Roberts commended the team for its strength in the sprint-free events.
Grand Valley, who has an enrollment of xx,xxx, provided the team with the type of competition coach Kirner said will serve the team well in the long run.
"To be at our best we need to swim against the best," he said. "It's good for us to swim against them at the beginning of the year. We make no excuses going against them."
Sophomore Ashleigh Belin offered a great deal of respect for the GLIAC giant.
"The thing for me about Grand Valley is it's like going against a division one school," she said. "They dominate the conference."
The team is taking the losses in stride considering the nature of the swim season.
"We're in the middle of the season right now and we're training really hard," Belin said. "We're doing a lot of yards, so you can't expect to have amazing times. Right now we're doing 11,000 yards per day."
The team will continue to train hard in order to prepare for the most important meets at the end of the season.
"In sports like these, for kids to get improvement they have work enormously hard," Kirner said. "With swimming you put all your eggs in one basket and that is the championship meet."
The team is preparing for their match against Northern Michigan University this Saturday. The team's first home match of the year will take place at 11 a.m. at the Roche Sport Complex.
"It'd be nice to win at home," Belin said. "We're really excited for this. It should be a really good meet."
The Chargers started out hot with junior Alicia Leduc , senior Meredith Scott, sophomore Linda Okonkowski, and freshman Sarah Leitner winning the 400 medley, with a time of 4:04.79 - 2.5 seconds ahead of the second-place team. Leduc also took first in the 100-meter backstroke, finishing at 1:01.15. Okonkowski, won the 500-meter freestyle swimming in at 5:15.92.
The squad ended up losing 175 to 87 to Grand Valley and 139 to 123 to Lewis.
"I was hoping we'd be a little more consistent," said head coach Kurt Kirner. "We were quite weak in the sprint events this weekend."
This came following the previous week's meet in which junior co-captain Alison Roberts commended the team for its strength in the sprint-free events.
Grand Valley, who has an enrollment of xx,xxx, provided the team with the type of competition coach Kirner said will serve the team well in the long run.
"To be at our best we need to swim against the best," he said. "It's good for us to swim against them at the beginning of the year. We make no excuses going against them."
Sophomore Ashleigh Belin offered a great deal of respect for the GLIAC giant.
"The thing for me about Grand Valley is it's like going against a division one school," she said. "They dominate the conference."
The team is taking the losses in stride considering the nature of the swim season.
"We're in the middle of the season right now and we're training really hard," Belin said. "We're doing a lot of yards, so you can't expect to have amazing times. Right now we're doing 11,000 yards per day."
The team will continue to train hard in order to prepare for the most important meets at the end of the season.
"In sports like these, for kids to get improvement they have work enormously hard," Kirner said. "With swimming you put all your eggs in one basket and that is the championship meet."
The team is preparing for their match against Northern Michigan University this Saturday. The team's first home match of the year will take place at 11 a.m. at the Roche Sport Complex.
"It'd be nice to win at home," Belin said. "We're really excited for this. It should be a really good meet."
Be the first to comment on this story