By: The Illinois College men’s team won four of the 11 events on the day to sneak past Beloit College and Loras College in a tri-meet at Beloit.
BELOIT, Wis. – The Illinois College men's swimming & diving team got 2016 off to a flying start with a victory at the Beloit College Tri-Meet. The Blueboys outlasted Beloit and Loras College to get the win after claiming four events on the day. The IC women's team came in third on the afternoon against the Buccaneers and Duhawks.
The tone for the day was set early as the men's 200 Medley Relay team of
Ben Allen,
Oak Wattanasirakul,
Elijah Rhoad and
Mike Weisenfelder outpaced the Loras team by a half-second to win with a time of 1:44.79.
In the next event,
Maddie Headtke set a PR in the 1650 Freestyle, touching in 21:53.97 to place fourth. Allen followed with a winning time of 18:27.00 in the men's event, ending with the second-fastest time in Illinois College history in the mile.
A series of second and third-place finishes followed for the Blueboys and Lady Blues.
Brooke Bauer ended as the runner-up in the 200 Freestyle in 2:17.56.
Lanie Thompson took bronze in the 50 Freestyle (27.45), as did
Christopher Morton in the same event for the men (25.53). In the 400 IM, Jacquemain lowered her PR and produced the second-fastest time ever for the Lady Blues (5:18.20) to finish second.
The Blueboys got back into the win column behind Rhoad and his time of 4:48.93 in the 400 IM. The sophomore narrowly clipped Loras' Greg Cormier by three-tenths of a second to claim victory.
Back on the women's side, Jacquemain placed third in the 200 Butterfly in 2:41.72. Thompson followed with a second place finish in the 100 Freestyle (1:00.09). Weisenfelder added a runner-up finish for the Blueboys in the 100 Freestyle, touching in 51.44. Allen also produced a second place showing in the 200 Backstroke, coming up with the fifth-best time ever for the Blueboys (2:14.67).
In the final individual events of the day,
Brady Burden was second in the 500 Freestyle for the Blueboys, clocking a 5:43.19. Wattanasirakul then won the 200 Breaststroke in 2:18.03, tying his time from earlier this year at Grinnell which is the fourth-best time at IC.
The final races of the day were the men's and women's 200 Freestyle Relay. The Lady Blues came in third in the event, with Headtke, Bauer, Jacquemain and Thompson closing out in 1:54.33. The Blueboys' team of Wattanasirakul, Burden, Rhoad and Weisenfelder were second in 1:36.67.
The Blueboys and Lady Blues will travel next weekend to the Principia Invite in Elsah, Ill., beginning at 1 p.m. on Jan. 23.
