JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College swimming & diving teams commandingly swept a double-dual meet against Knox College and Principia College on Saturday afternoon at Coultas Natatorium. The Blueboys defeated Knox by a score of 147-16 and Principia by a score of 139-55. The Lady Blues were 159-56 winners over the Prairie Fire and 139-69 victors over the Panthers.
In total, Illinois College won 20 of the day's 28 events, including seven races in which the Blueboys or Lady Blues occupied the top two spots. The day opened with the 200 Medley Relay and the Lady Blues won with a time of 1:59.87 by Hannah Baker, Hannah Marks, Kate Edelstein and Marjori Russo. The men followed with a winning time of 1:50.87 by
Kaden Canales,
Colin Williams,
Steven Lorett and
Jake Howey.
Moving into individual events, Caitlyn Gallagher submitted the winning time in the women's 1650 Freestyle at 21:11.36, while the duo of
Marty Ambre and
Myles Genrich finished back-to-back with times of 18:18.55 and 18:25.60, respectively. That storyline continued to emerge in the 200 Freestyle as Nicole Homann won the women's event in 2:14.05 and the Blueboys had the top two swimmers with
Colin Williams narrowly edging out
Jake Howey, clocking a 1:57.37 to Howey's 1:57.39.
In other women's races, Marks won the 100 Breaststroke (1:10.54) and 200 Breaststroke (2:32.14). In the sprint freestyle events, Lindsay Bruce won with a time of 27.75 in the 50 Free while Russo was the only swimmer to break the one-minute mark in the 100 with a 59.30. In the last individual event of the day for the Lady Blues, Homann claimed the 400 IM title in 5:16.08 with Jacquelin Castellon finishing second with a time of 5:50.13.
For the Blueboys, Ambre won two other events with victories in the 100 Backstroke (1:01.14) and 200 Backstroke (2:28.67). The IC men had four other events in which they finished 1-2.
Steven Lorett was the winner of the 200 Butterfly in 2:14.06, while
Monte Bushman was second. In the 100 Freestyle, Williams took down a field of eight with a time of 52.44 while Genrich finished as runner-up. Genrich was able to get an event victory by claiming the 500 Freestyle in 5:16.50. Howey was close behind in second. Finally, Lorett and
Owen Sheridan had the top two spots in the 100 Butterfly with Lorett winning in 57.45 seconds. One final individual event victory for the Blueboys came as Williams finished nearly 30 seconds ahead of the field in the 400 IM with a 4:47.53.
To cap off the two sweeps, Illinois College had both winning relays in the 200 Freestyle Relay at the end of the day. The women's team of Russo, Baker, Bruce and Marks enjoyed a 13-second victory in 1:50.21. The men's squad of Lorett, Canales, Howey and Ambre were seven seconds ahead of everyone in the men's race in 1:36.46.
Illinois College goes on the road next weekend, competing on Nov. 9 at the Monmouth Invite beginning at 1 p.m.
