The Hillsdale College women's swim team entered Saturday's finals at the G-MAC/MEC Championships in Canton, Ohio with the outcome of the meet very much in doubt.
After an excellent performance in the final five races of the meet, however, the Chargers left C.T. Branin Natatorium the same way it had the past two seasons -- with the G-MAC/MEC trophy for the third straight year.
Hillsdale had just a 29 point lead on rival Findlay after three days of competition, but found another gear on Saturday to pull away from the Oilers, finishing with 1631.5 points to Findlay's 1544.5 and securing the title once again. The Chargers' head coach, Kurt Kirner, was named G-MAC/MEC women's coach of the year for the fourth year in a row, while freshman Elise Mason was named freshman swimmer of the meet and sophomore Cecilia Guadalupi won the G-MAC Elite 25 award, handed out to the G-MAC swimmer competing in the finals with the highest cumulative GPA.
Elise Mason won her third conference title in the 1,650 freestyle to open the night, breaking her own school record with an NCAA DII B-cut, meet record, and lifetime best time in 17:11.51, winning the event by 33 seconds.
Shortly after, junior Marie Taylor won her second conference title in the 100 freestyle with a time of 52.22, just .11 from the DII B-cut.
To cap the night, Hillsdale's 400 freestyle relay of Cecilia Guadalupi, Leah Tunney, Megan Clifford, and Marie Taylor finished the last event of the meet with a conference title and time of 3:32.08.
Sophomore Cecilia Guadalupi finished the 100 freestyle in a close second place with a season best time (52.59), freshman Megan Clifford finished fifth with a season best time (53.05), freshman Lily Golladay finished tenth with a lifetime best time (54.40), junior Sydney Slepian finished nineteenth (55.55), and senior Carissa Henderson finished twenty-second (56.95).
In the 200 backstroke, junior Leah Tunney finished third (2:06.97), just ahead of sophomore teammate Caroline Holmes (2:07.23), sophomore Amy Mills finished tenth with a season best time (2:12.04), freshman Lily Golladay finished in a close eleventh place with a lifetime best time (2:12.68), dropping five seconds from her prelims swim, junior Sydney Slepian finished thirteenth (2:15.18), and senior Carissa Henderson finished sixteenth (2:19.12).
In the 200 breaststroke, freshman Joanna Burnham finished fourth with a season best time (2:25.21), and freshman Emmalyse Dickhudt finished eighth (2:29.36)
The Chargers will wait to see if any of their swimmers with B-cut marks will qualify to compete in the NCAA Division II Championships, slated to begin on March 9 and run through the 12th. The championship meet will be held this year at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Written by Zoe Tracey
Photo by Andy Smith, Malone Athletics