Minnesota Morris will go into tomorrow’s final day of action trailing second place IIT by just 4.5 points.
ELSAH, Ill.– The University of Minnesota Morris swimming & diving team used its depth on Friday to close the gap on the two programs ahead of it at the Liberal Arts Championships.
After the third day of competition at the LACs, Asbury University leads the team standings with 425 points. Illinois Institute of Technology is in second place with 373 points. Minnesota Morris is nipping at the heels of the Scarlet Hawks, sitting in third with 368.5 points. The rest of the team standings have Principia College in fourth place (213 points), Williams Baptist University in fifth (203.5 points), Mills College in sixth (177 points), and the College of Saint Mary in seventh (90 points).
The morning prelims had five events to set up the night’s individual finals. The 400 IM led off the first session and Minnesota Morris had a pair of swimmers qualify for the ‘A’ final in the event with Jenna Gutterman clocking a 5:09.02 and Abby Doyle checking in at 5:24.65. It was a similar story in the 100 Butterfly as Carolyn Curtis and Liesl Smee both went into the ‘A’ final with Curtis swimming a 1:03.41 and Smee touching the wall in 1:08.80.
Things really picked up for the Cougars with the 200 Freestyle Relay as four swimmers were entered into the event. Lilly Radintz had the second-best time in the prelims with a 2:06.99 and she was joined in the ‘A’ final by Jalissa Johnson (2:16.56). The ‘B’ final included two other Cougars – Jessica Beaudoin and Victoria Johnson – after Beaudoin swam a 2:42.44 and Victoria Johnson ended in 2:54.91.
Next up was the 100 Breaststroke. Paige Haugen had a huge PR in the race and finished in 1:13.51 to produce the fourth-best time in school history. Jalissa Johnson once again made it into an ‘A’ final as she ended in 1:23.51. Victoria Johnson closed out the race in 10th place and went into the ‘B’ final after posting a time of 1:43.49.
The final event of the prelims was the 100 Backstroke. In that one, Morgan Ball earned a spot in the ‘A’ final after swimming the eighth-fastest time in program history of 1:05.81. Hannah Wellens (1:08.97), Paulina Bekkum (1:14.61) and Anna Fairbanks (1:15.36) all went to the ‘B’ final.
The evening session began with the finals of the 400 IM. Both Gutterman and Doyle cut their times massively, with Gutterman finishing in fourth place with the second-best time in school history with a 4:54.42, and Doyle submitting the eighth-best time ever for the Cougars of 5:07.81 to place fifth.
In the final of the 100 Butterfly, Curtis claimed fourth place in 1:03.91. Smee dropped her time from the morning and ended in seventh place with a 1:07.20, a time that ranks 13th all-time for the Cougars.
Four Cougars earned points in the 200 Freestyle. Radintz took the bronze in the ‘A’ final, clocking in at 2:08.17. She was followed by Jalissa Johnson in fifth, who dropped her time to 2:13.36. In the ‘B’ final, Beaudoin was the runner-up with a 2:36.69 to take 10th place. Victoria Johnson was then 12th overall in 2:54.42.
Haugen had the top time for Minnesota Morris in the finals of the 100 Breaststroke. Though just behind her time from prelims, Haugen’s time of 1:13.71 was good for fourth place. Jalissa Johnson took seventh (1:22.83) and Victoria Johnson finished as the runner-up in the ‘B’ final to take 10th in 1:44.64.
The final individual event of the night was the 100 Backstroke. In the ‘B’ final, Wellens took the top spot in 1:09.63 to finish ninth overall. Bekkum was 12th in 1:13.61 and Fairbanks was 13th in 1:16.76. That led up to the ‘A’ final where Ball dropped one-hundredth of a second from her time in the morning, taking fifth place in 1:05.80 and slicing a bit of time onto the eighth-best mark in Cougar history.
The 200 Medley Relay finished things off on Friday night. The first heat featured the Cougar ‘B’ team of Wellens, Jalissa Johnson, Bekkum, and Victoria Johnson turning in a time of 2:17.65. The final heat featured the ‘A’ teams and Minnesota Morris had a fourth-place showing with Ball, Haugen, Curtis, and Radintz combining to touch the wall in 1:56.91.
The Liberal Arts Championships wrap up tomorrow with the fourth and final day of competition. Prelims begin at 10 a.m. in the 200 Backstroke, 100 Freestyle, 200 Breaststroke and the 200 Butterfly. The evening session starts once again at 5:30 p.m. with the 1650 Freestyle, the finals of those preliminary events, and the 400 Freestyle Relay to finish it off.
