Cobbers Dreaming Of A White Opener
Sophomore Ciara White led Concordia at the season opener as she won a pair of individual events.
MORRIS, Minn. (10/28/16)—Concordia jumped off the block in the 2016 season by competing in a dual meet at Minn.-Morris. Sophomore Ciara White claimed the only individual event wins as the Cobbers lost 136.5-99.5.
Despite only two first-place finish in the meet, Concordia claimed second place in all eight other swimming events.
White tied for first place in the 200-yard individual medley and then won the 100-yard breaststroke which was the final individual event of the meet. White clocked a 2:30.78 in the 200-yard IM which was the exact same time as the swimmer from Morris.
White left little doubt in the 100-yard breaststroke as she swam a 1:13.24 and won the event by a full seven seconds.
Katrina Teskey and Sarah Nelson had a pair of second-place finishes. Teskey earned second in the first individual event of the year. She touched the wall in the 1000-yard freestyle in 12:40.43 and then came home in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 6:14.61.
Nelson earned her second-place marks in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly which took place two events apart from one another. Nelson got her season off to a fast start by posting a time of 27.15 in the 50-yard freestyle which was .26 of a second off the winning time. She then recorded a mark of 1:06.57 in the 100-yard butterfly.
Alaina Dehnke, Joleen Plekkenpol and Libby Hardwick had the other runner-up finishes for the Cobbers. Dehnke was second in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 2:07.63 while Plekkenpol was runner-up in the 100-yard freestyle at 59.86 and Hardwick was second in the 100-yard backstroke after touching the wall in 1:04.10.
Hardwick's time was barely out-touched for the win in the 100-yard backstroke as she finished a mere .06 of a second behind the winner. Hardwick's finishing time was also almost 2-seconds faster than her finishing time in the same event at the first meet of last season.
WHAT'S NEXT: Concordia will have only five blocks to travel for its next away dual meet. The Cobbers will swim at MSU Moorhead on Friday, Nov. 4 at 6 p.m. and then host their home opener against St. Catherine on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 1 p.m.