PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. — The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology men’s swimming and diving team captured its second consecutive College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin championship, while the women placed fourth among seven teams at the three-day event in Wisconsin.
Rose-Hulman captured its second conference men’s swimming championship in its 26 years of program history with the performance on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Fightin’ Engineers scored 883 points, followed by Carthage with 866 and Wheaton at 740. Illinois Wesleyan, North Central and Millikin completed the men’s finishing order.
On the women’s side, Wheaton College captured the conference title with 867 points. Carthage came home second at 637, followed by Illinois Wesleyan with 599 and Rose-Hulman with 416. Augustana, Millikin and North Central rounded out the women’s scoring.
The swimming and diving performance included 19 all-conference performances and seven school records between two weekends of swimming and diving competition. Rose-Hulman also captured five individual event championships, with three in swimming events and two in the diving competition.
Following the meet, Rose-Hulman head coach Keith Crawford was honored as the CCIW Men’s Coach of the Year after leading the Fightin’ Engineers to their second straight conference title.
Senior Orion Martin highlighted the individual conference championship performances by completing a four-year career sweep in the 100-butterfly. Martin recorded a winning time of 48.36 seconds to mark just the second time in 10 years that a swimmer has won the CCIW championship in the same event for four straight years.
Senior Sam Gould added a conference championship in the three-meter diving competition to complete his own four-year career sweep of league titles. Gould scored 420.45 points to capture the three-meter diving title.
Sophomore Patrick King won the third men’s individual championship with a 200-butterfly time of 1:50.99. King’s title led a strong performance in the 200-butterfly that included six of the top eight finishing positions to help clinch the team title.
The Rose-Hulman women’s squad added two individual conference championships. Junior Ellie Hong narrowly missed snapping her own school record with a conference championship in the 200-backstroke, completing the event in 2:00.66.
Senior Regen Foote added to the conference championship tally with her first career CCIW title by scoring 371.45 points in the three-meter competition.
The Fightin’ Engineers combined for six individual second-place honors on the weekend. Hong came home as the runner-up in the 50-freestyle (24.22 seconds) and the 100-backstroke (56.49). Senior Paul Hintz earned second-place finishes and all-conference performances in the 200-freestyle (1:42.43) and the 500-freestyle (4:41.47).
Other second-place performers included Foote in women’s one-meter diving with 401.90 points, and sophomore Avery Krovetz with a runner-up finish in the men’s 1,650-freestyle in a time of 16:05.29.
Individual all-conference honors were also earned by eight third-place finishers in men’s events. Third-place individual men’s finishers included junior Pierce Bartine in the 50-freestyle (20.97), Gould in one-meter diving (393.50 points) to complete a career featuring eight all-conference awards; senior Matthew King in the 1,650-freestyle (16:25.03); senior diver Josh Maurer with 398.55 points in three-meter diving; Martin in the 100-freestyle (45.90); junior Matt Schulstad in the 200-butterfly (1:54.60); sophomore Ben Stone in the 200-freestyle (1:43.02); and junior Alexander Yaung in the 200-breaststroke (2:06.97).
Two Rose-Hulman men’s relay teams came home in second place with school record performances. The 800-freestyle relay team set a new school record and fell just .02 seconds shy of earning first-place honors. Martin, Stone, Hintz and Cam Gill combined on the performance that finished in 6:49.08.
The 200-freestyle relay team of Martin, Gill, Tyler Sariscsany and Bartine set a school record with a runner-up mark of 1:22.95. The same four swimmers combined for a runner-up finish in the 200-medley relay with a time of 1:32.41.
The 400-freestyle relay squad capped the meet with a runner-up performance in a time of 3:04.97 that was less than a second shy of a school record. Martin, Gill, Hintz and Bartine combined for the final runner-up finish.
The women’s 200-medley, 400-medley and 800-freestyle relay teams also established school records this weekend. The 400-medley relay team of Hong, Savannah Rice, Bethany Lefeber and Lauren Blake came home in 4:01.71 to place third overall. The same four swimmers combined for another school record in the 200-medley relay with a fourth-place finish in 1:50.25. Hong, Rice, Maria Kline and Blake set another relay school record with an 800-freestyle mark of 8:04.13 that placed fourth.
Fourth-place men’s finishers included Bartine in the 100-butterfly (50.06); freshman Nicholas Jeronis in the 1,650-freestyle (16:29.62); Maurer in three-meter diving (381.75 points); senior Brady Stern in the 500-freestyle (4:45.06); Stone in the 200-backstroke (1:54.05); and sophomore Austin Salisbury in the 200-butterfly (1:54.76).
Fifth-place men’s efforts were recorded by Gill in the 100-backstroke (51.81); Patrick King in the 100-butterfly (50.61); and freshman Nick Samra in the 200-breaststroke (2:08.85).
Kline led the women’s fifth-place performances with top-five efforts in both the 500-freestyle (5:18.01) and the 1,650-freestyle (18:32.54). Two relay teams also came home fifth on the women’s side. The 200-freestyle relay team of Hong, Rice, Kline and Blake recorded a mark of 1:40.60, while the 400-freestyle relay squad of Lefeber, Melissa Arbelaez, Kline and Lauren McLennan placed fifth in 3:49.40.
Hong established the remaining three school records on the weekend. She set a pair of 50-freestyle records, first setting the mark at 24.25 in the 50-freestyle preliminaries before breaking her own record with a 24.22 in the finals.
Gould and Foote have qualified to compete in the NCAA Division III Diving Regionals in two weeks, and the Fightin’ Engineers will await all conference championship results before learning which swimmers have qualified for next month’s NCAA Division III National Championships. Hong and Martin each earned All-American honors during the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
Swimming news courtesy of Rose-Hulman Swimming & Diving.
