John Collins took 13 of his Badger swimmers to compete at the 48th Geneva International Championships over the weekend. Collins’ crew competed against the 600 athletes involved in the competition.
As a team they finished second overall collecting 20 medals with 10 individual medalists.
Collins told meet organizers, “All the people who were supposed to win won which was great,” said Collins.
“Everyone on the team contributed which is what we shoot for as a team. Everyone succeeding and a strong team dynamic. We also got a chance to see our swimmers competing very successfully against some of the best swimmers in Europe.”
Lindsay Vrooman collected gold in the 200 (2:01.67), 400 (4:11.90) and 800 freestyle (8:42.02) along with the 200 butterfly (2:19.39). Vrooman beat Camille Muffat‘s 400 freestyle record of 4:13.08 which she set in 2013. She also broke the meet record of 8:49.31 in the 800 freestyle which was set by Julia Hassler in 2013.
Vrooman was challenged in the first half of both the 200 butterfly and 800 freestyle, but dominated the second half of each swim.
With her clocking in the 400 freestyle she took the Best Performance of the Meet Award.
Badger swimmers finished one two in both the 400 freestyle and 200 butterfly. Anina Lund took the silver in the 400 freestyle while Mary Kate Melnyk finished second in the 200 butterfly.
Emily McClellan swept the breaststroke events challenging meet records in both the 50 and 100 meter distances. McClellan posted a 32.55 in the 50, a 1:10.58 in the 100 and a 2:35.12 in the 200.
In the 200 McClellan had an extremely strong first 100 and held on to win against a fast charging Lisa Fissneider who finished in a time of 2:35.72.
Derek Toomey took the sprint freestyle events winning the 50 in a time of 23.40 and the 100 in a time of 50.86.
Nathalie Eid tied for the gold in the 200 backstroke with Fanny Borer, both women recorded a time of 2:20.72.
Vrooman, Eid, Melnyk and Lund along with Jack Collins, Caroline Poleway and Anya Paby all collected bronze medals.
The meet also included an ‘Australian Shootout’, which are four round 50 stroke elimination events. Toomey and Vrooman took the freestyle events while McClellan won the breaststroke eliminator.
Full results can be found here.
Thanks to Aaron Montgomery for contributing to this article.
