Triangular Triumph
Concordia won the opening relay and then six individual events to capture the Hamline Triangular.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (1/29/16)—Concordia started its triangular meet at Hamline by winning the 200-yard medley relay and then backed that up with six individual event wins as they bettered Hamline and Augsburg at the meet.
The Cobbers finished the meet with 97 points which outdistanced the 75 points put up by Hamline and the 65 scored by Augsburg.
In only their second meet of the New Year, Concordia continued to post season-best times and put up successful swims from most of the members of the team.
Annie Herkenhoff and Ann Marie O'Connell won two events each to lead Concordia against the Pipers and Auggies. Herkenhoff claimed both distance freestyle events while O'Connell collected back-to-back swimming wins in the 200-yard individual medley and then the 100-yard butterfly.
Herkenhoff posted season best times in both the 1000-yard and 500-yard freestyle to win both events. She started the meet by racing to an 11:01.91. Herkenhoff won the event by a full 48 seconds and her finishing time is 27 seconds faster than her previous season best. Teammate Lily Johnson also swam a season best time in the event with a third-place mark of 12:26.21.
Herkenhoff added the 500-yard freestyle title to her achievement list on Friday. She clocked a 5:27.54 in the 10th event of the meet and claimed the top spot by 25.19 seconds. Johnson was once again third with a mark of 6:01.3.
O'Connell was the second Cobber to win an event at the meet when she touched first in the 200-yard individual medley which was the fifth event of the meet. O'Connell swam a 2:23.30 which was .38 of a second faster than the runner –up and also a lifetime best for O'Connell.
Buoyed by her lightning-fast swim in the 200 IM, O'Connell turned right around and won the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 1:04.40. She was 2.18 seconds faster than teammate Sarah Nelson who placed second at 1:06.58.
Freshmen Alaina Dehnke and Ciara White had the other event wins for the Cobbers. Dehnke made it two consecutive individual event wins when she raced to a 57.61 in the 100-yard freestyle in the race directly after the 100-yard butterfly.
After Madeline Johnson and newcomer Lauren Arnold placed second and third in the 100-yard backstroke with times of 1:04.74 and 1:09.34, White capped off the individual event slate by capturing the crown in the 100-yard breaststroke. White finished the race in a time of 1:13.19 which was a mere .20 of second ahead of the next fastest competitor.
TWEETABLE
The tweet of the night comes from junior Madeline Johnson:
WHAT'S NEXT
Concordia will stay in St. Paul when they meet up with St. Catherine on Saturday, Jan. 30 at noon at the Butler Center on the campus of St. Catherine.