News

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Calvin completed a decade of dominance by winning its 10th consecutive MIAA title on Saturday night, finishing the four day MIAA Championships competition with a total of 895 points, 37 points ahead of runner-up Hope.

Calvin entered Saturday’s competition with a 42-point lead and had a solid performance throughout Saturday to hold on to its lead and the title.

The first event of the night was the 1650 freestyle. The Knights picked up several key points taking third and fifth. Coming in third was Calvin’s Kathryn Wrobel with a time of 17:42.40, and coming in fifth Elizabeth Schleh 18:16.83.

The second event of the night ended up with a first place and also MIAA record finish by Calvin’s Erika Waugh with a time of 2:03.49 in the 200 backstroke, beating the rest of the field by nearly two seconds. Her time topped the previous MIAA record of 2:05.48 set by Hope’s Hannah Larson a year ago. The Knights also picked up a couple more points off of a seventh place finish by Megan Schroder with a time of 2:14.43.

In the 200 breaststroke final, Calvin’s Lexi Scott took second with a time of 2:24.28 and eighth was taken by Nicole Karl with a time of 2:35.54. In the 200 butterfly finals Calvin’s Karine Rose came in seventh with a time of 2:24.18. In the final race of the night the 400 Free Relay the Knights took second with the quartet of Adrienne Wesselius, Margaret Rechel, Michaela Rookus, and Kathryn Wrobel. They finished second with a time of 3:32.13 to finish off the meet.

At the conclusion of the meet, Calvin sophomore Michaela Rookus received the Most Valuable Swimmer Award by MIAA Coaches. Rookus is the sixth individual in Calvin women’s swimming and diving history to receive MIAA Most Valuable Swimmer honors.

“To do what we did tonight in our own pool in front of our own fans was very special said Calvin head swim coach Dan Gelderloos. “I told our team on the awards stand that this was truly one of the more memorable titles for our program. It really came down to what we did on Friday night because that gave us the momentum and the margin we needed to make the final day much more manageable.”

Calvin’s MIAA title is its 12th in program history. Calvin’s streak of 10 consecutive MIAA titles matches the longest streak in MIAA women’s swimming and diving history as Hope also won 10 straight titles from 1980-to-1989.