News-Letter

Media Credit: Shiv Gandhi [Click to enlarge]

In the pool, the battle of the sexes has been decided. The women's swim team defended their 2006 title, winning the meet by 199 points to become 2007 Blue Grass Mountain Conference. The men's team had a disappointing finish, coming in fourth with 378 points at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships. Harvard came in first with 513 points.

Sophomore Elissa Stautner began the third and final day of the conference championships by winning the 1,650-yard Free with a personal best time of 17:52.73. The next Jay to finish was freshman Julia Senerth, who came in fifth place. Hopkins controlled the 200-yard Backstroke, scoring first, fifth, and sixth place. Junior Erica Pakkala got the win with a season-best time of 2:08.24. Sophomores Kate Hansen and Megan Zepp placed fifth and sixth, respectively. In the 100-yard Free, sophomore Kristin Cunningham swam to a third place finish with a time of 53.61, only .16 seconds behind the second place swimmer for Catawaba. Sophomores Jackie Rooney and Val Neff-Rasmussen placed 6th and 10th, respectively. Sarah Thomas secured 12th place.

Senior Allie Foster swam her best time of the season to earn second place in the 200-yard Breastroke with a time of 2:20.94. Freshman Caitlin Dennis finished 1.94 seconds after Foster to place fourth in the event. Freshman Robin Schaffer placed sixth in the 200 yard Butterfly.

The Hopkins women finished the meet with a third place ithe 400-yard Freestyle Relay.

The relay team was made up of Cunningham, Neff-Rasmussen, Foster and Rooney. The team finished the relay with a time of 3:38.90 seconds, which is the fastest relay time of the season for the Blue Jays.

It was a team win, as all the swimmers combined for multi-place finishes. Sophomore Jackie Rooney said: "We could not have won Bluegrass without everyone's participation. We definitely won as a team. The whole meet was great with many amazing swims. One of the standout relays was the freestyle relay, which broke the Bluegrass Conference record. Allie Foster also had a great meet, almost beating her personal best in the 200 Breast un-rested. We all look forward to NCAAs and are really focusing on the relays."

"The team swam amazingly well at the Bluegrass Conference meet. We won the meet by a lot and many of us had personal best times. The meet was a lot of fun to be at too," Schaffer said. "The girls swimming at the NCAA nationals are getting ready to swim fast, and the relays going to nationals are going to do really well also."

Dennis is also ready to bring the momentum of the conference win to nationals. "All the girls really got into the meet," she said. "The team should do really well at the NCAAs ... we qualified for some really good relays and the girls are all really excited. The team is only going to get faster."

The men's team began the final day of championships with sophomore Colin Kleinguetl and David Postetter finishing 4th and 11th in the 1,650-yard Freestyle. Hopkins did not place again until the 200-yard Breaststroke. Freshman Jon Kegelman finished second with a time of 2:07.40. The Blue Jays ended the day finishing in second place in the 400 Free Relay consisting of junior Brad Test, freshman John Thomas, junior Matt Fedderly and senior Kevin Walsh.

In the first and second days of competition, Test placed first in the 50 Free, finishing in only 20.92 seconds. Thomas, Kegelman, Test and senior Keith Parent followed with a win in the 400 Medley Relay. Hopkins also captured the 200 Medley Relay, and Kleinguetl finished with a season-best time of 4:08.03 in the 400 Individual Medley for 7th place.

"[The ECAC Tournament is] typically a meet where the guys who haven't qualified for NCAA's make their cuts c9 but this year the times that were put up are either on the bubble or not fast enough," Test said. "We will have a clearer picture in a few weeks of who actually made it and who didn't. Right now we have John Thomas, Matt Fedderly, Bob Sershon, Richard Geurard, and me for certain.

"We had high expectations and still do, but this past weekend we definitely did not live up to them."

The women compete next from March 8-10 for the 2007 NCAA Championships in Houston, Texas. Last year the Lady Jays finished in 12th place. The men's team will compete from March 15-17, also in Houston. The men finished fourth at the 2006 NCAA Championships.

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