Relays & Distance Queen Shine At Dual
Annie Herkenhoff and the relay teams shone brightly at the Cobbers' second straight day of competition.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (1/30/16)--- Annie Herkenhoff posted her second straight two-win meet and Concordia had another successful swim for the second consecutive day.
Herkenhoff won the 1650-yard and 100-yard freestyle and the Cobbers had five event wins in their dual meet at St. Catherine. Concordia wound losing the dual 157-105 to the Wildcats.
Besides Herkenhoff's two wins in the freestyle events, the biggest news of the day came from the relay events where Concordia captured both the 200-yard medley relay to open the dual and the 200-yard freestyle relay which closed out the afternoon.
The quartet of Madeline Johnson, Ciara White, Lauren Arnold and Ann Marie O'Connell started CC off on the right foot by posting a time of 1:57.28 in the meet-opening 200-yard medley relay. O'Connell swam the anchor leg and touched the pad a mere 0.14 of a second in front of the top St. Catherine team. CC's finishing time is a season best in the event.
Herkenhoff teamed with Alaina Dehnke, Lily Johnson and Sarah Nelson to win the 200-yard freestyle relay in the meet finale. The quartet came home in 1:48.07 which was 0.67 faster than the runner-up in the race.
In between the relay wins, Herkenhoff and Dehnke came away with individual event victories.
Herkenhoff swam her second distance freestyle race in as many days and won the 1650-yard freestyle by clocking an 18:43.58 which won the race by almost a full minute. She continues to take time off her season best in the event every time she dives in the pool. Her previous season best was 18:43.90 which came at the Jean Freeman Invite. Her time at the St. Catherine dual would have placed her 13th at last year's MIAC Championship Meet.
Herkenhoff came up with the next event win for the Cobbers in the eighth race of the day. She sped to a 59.28 in the 100-yard freestyle which just clipped her teammate White who placed second at 59.80. White's time is a season best.
White also had a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. She swam a 1:11.13 which was two seconds faster than her time on Friday when she won the event at the Hamline Triangular.
Herkenhoff wasn't finished with her day. Just in case swimming 3,250 yards in less than 24 hours wasn't enough, she decided to put up a second-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle. She fought through tired arms to post a time of 5:33.14.
All told on the weekend Herkenhoff swam 3,750 yards and won four events.
Dehnke won the other individual event directly after Herkenhoff's win in the 100-yard freestyle. Dehnke swam a 2:16.49 to win the 200-yard backstroke by 0.42 of a second. Dehnke's time is a season best and backs up her win in the 100-yard freestyle on Friday.
Dehnke was also third in both the 200-yard and 50-yard freestyle events at the dual meet.
O'Connell, Madeline Johnson and Arnold had the other second-place finishes on the afternoon. O'Connell had a 2:31.34 in the 200-yard butterfly to take second. Johnson swam a 1:04.73 in the backstroke while Arnold came home in 1:09.27 in 100-yard butterfly.
The other notable swim for the Cobbers on Saturday came from newcomer McKayle Carter who qualified for the MIAC Championship Meet in the 100-yard backstroke by swimming a 1:10.76.
WHAT'S NEXT
Concordia will finish off the "regular season" when they compete at the Minnesota Challenge next weekend. The multi-team invitational will take place on Feb. 5-6 and be held at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center which is the same venue as the MIAC Championship Meet so it will give the Cobbers a good run through for the year-end meet on Feb. 18-20.