CSR (Women's Swimming & Diving Captures MIAA Title/Men's Team Places Fourth)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR FEB. 13, 2010 (Part Two)
Women's Swimming & Diving Captures MIAA Title/Men's Team Places Fourth
(written by Derek Neice, Mitch Blankespoor and Jeff Febus
As Calvin senior and MIAA Most Valuable Swimmer Maggie Vail touched the wall
at the end of the 400 free relay, she gave the Knights yet another 1st place
finish this weekend, and with that touch she characterized the entire
conference meet for the Calvin women as they went on to win the 2010 Conference
Championship with a record 939 points.
With those 939 points Calvin won the women’s competition by 224, with Hope
taking second place with 715 points, and Kalamazoo nabbing third with 442
points.
“Everyone carried their own weight, everyone swam to their potential, and
everyone supported each other,” Calvin coach Dan Gelderloos said after the
festivities had concluded. “We were able to swim real well and we put a pretty
good team onto the national meet in Minneapolis Lord-willing.
The day’s events started out with the mile finals, a grueling race of 1650
yards that saw Calvin swimmers finish fourth through seventh. Libby Veldkamp
came in fourth with a time of 18:02.45, Laura Price took fifth in 18:11.25,
Bridget Scott came in sixth with a time of 18:21.36, and Shelby Cloyd grabbed
seventh with a time of 18:22.10.
Next came the 200 back finals, and Monica Bressler was impressive yet again as
she took first place with a time of 2:09.94. Caitlin Alexander came fourth
with a time of 2:11.87.
The 100 free finals came next, and Calvin’s top performers in that event were
Rachel Bos who took third with a time of 53.60 and Rachel Colasurdo who took
eighth in a time of 54.78. In the 100 free consolation finals Stephanie Fox
and Kendra Kinzer finished in the top two spots with times of 54.47 and 54.90.
The next event was the 200 breast finals, and with the finishes Saturday it
can definitely be argued that Calvin’s breaststrokers were the most impactful
throughout the entirety of the meet. In the finals, Maggie Vail and Emily
Roberts took the top two spots yet again with B-cut times of 2:21.54 and
2:23.80. Libby Counsell got out-touched at the wall by an Albion swimmer and
took fourth with still an impressive B-cut time of 2:24.96.
“The breaststrokers continued to be a strong point,” Gelderloos said of his
trio of breaststrokers. “Maggie Vail really continued to dominate in that
event as she has the last three years or so, Emily Roberts had a very solid
time, and we all feel there’s a lot of room for improvement over the next
couple weeks before we head to nationals.”
“Maggie [Vail] is probably top two or three of my all-time most improved
swimmers over their four years,” Gelderloos said of his MIAA Most Valuable
Swimmer. “She’s an incredibly confident swimmer, silently very competitive,
and she’s going to be really missed next year to be honest.”
Calvin couldn’t win them all though. The 200 fly finals were the only ones
that did not feature a Calvin swimmer in the top four finishers. In that event
Kelley Barr was the sole Knight representative and she took eighth in a time of
2:23.85.
The final event was the 400 free relay finals, and Calvin’s win in that event
sealed a phenomenal performance by the women over the last three days. The
relay consisted of Monica Bressler, Rachel Bos, Laura Price and Maggie Vail,
and they won the race in a B-cut time of 3:32.35.
“The highlight for me was the 400 relay, I love winning that event,”
Gelderloos said of the final event of the night. “It was kind of icing on the
cake to go out on that note.”
Looking back over the last three days, you have to admire the performances of
these women in the water. They won event after event, they had a swimmer named
the conference’s most valuable, and they set the conference record for points
scored.
There’s a lot of happiness going around that team right now as they look ahead
to the big dance in March, but none bigger than Gelderloos’. As he jumped off
the diving boards with the rest of the Calvin coaches in celebration after his
team was awarded the trophy, his joy was unmistakable.
MEN’S RECAP - REYNOLDS PLACES FIFTH ON THREE-METER BOARD/RUSHLOW FOURTH IN 100
FREE
In the men’s competition, Calvin came up with a number of strong performances
on the final night of competition. Calvin’s top individual finish came from
freshman Mark Rushlow who was fourth in the 100 freestyle with a time of 46.56.

Other top-eight individual finishes for the Calvin men included freshman
Mathias Bares placing seventh in the 1650 freestyle (16:45.28), sophomore Ross
Battoclette taking eighth in the 200 backstroke (2:00.95), freshman Stephen
Kraft taking seventh in the 200 breaststroke (2:13.20) and Calvin’s 400
freestyle relay team of freshman Kenton Cooper, senior Kurt VanAllsburg,
freshman Kyle Garringer and senior Jon Herrema placing fourth (3:13.67).
Calvin’s lone diver, freshmen Colin Reynolds, finished fifth with a score of
242.25.
“Colin did great tonight. He made one mistake, but that will happen as a
rookie. You get in the finals and your adrenalin is pumping. He helped his
team out by getting on the podium tonight. What else can you ask from a guy
that comes and works hard everyday? ” Calvin diving coach Aaron Paskvan
commented.

Reynolds looked to rebound on the finals., but finished fifth again. He had a
couple of great dives. On his second dive, he didn’t get quite enough air. As
a result, he went headfirst into the water before his hands could get around.
Despite this, he rebounded and had a couple of great dives to finish fifth.
Reynolds’s scoring was not quite enough to jolt the men ahead of Olivet, but
kept them within striking distance until the very end.
Received on Sun Feb 14 01:04:24 2010