Season-Best Success At St. Kate's
Concordia put up a boatload of season bests as they split its two dual meets to start the final weekend of the season.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (2/26/21)---Concordia put up a boatload of season bests as they split its two dual meets to start the final weekend of the season. The Cobbers beat Augsburg 108-51 but fell to host St. Catherine 108-51. The Wildcats won the MIAC Championship in 2020.
Concordia, who will swim in their last meet of the year on Saturday at Minn.-Morris, got event wins from freshman Rachel Andersen in the 1000-yard freestyle and the 400-yard freestyle team. CC also had Top 3 finishes from senior Anna Backes and junior Alexandra Rasmussen.
Andersen won the 1000 free by dropping over 30 seconds off her previous season-best time. She won the event with a time of 12:08.55 which was 32-seconds faster than her fastest time in 2021. Andersen also swam the 100-yard backstroke for the first time in her collegiate career and posted a seventh-place time of 1:11.15.
The Cobbers finished the met in style by winning the 400-yard freestyle. The quartet of Backes, Camille Gunderson, Jessica Bray and Rasmussen clocked a 3:51.15 which bettered the previous team best of the season by 23 seconds. Rasmussen swam a 56.12 in the anchor leg which was faster than her time at the MIAC Championship Meet last year.
Rasmussen also recorded a time faster than last year's conference meet time in the 50—yard freestyle. She touched the wall in a season-best time of 26.00. Rasmussen also competed in the 100-yard backstroke and finished in sixth at 1:06.88.
Backes had a pair of Top 3 finishes. She was second in the 200-yard freestyle and third in the 500 free. Both of her finishing times were season bests. She dropped 8-seconds off her best time in the 200 with a mark of 2:02.76. She followed that up with a 5:38.04 in the 500 free which was an 8.95 second drop off her top time of the year.
Sophomore Kaitlin Cramer narrowly missed a Top 3 finish in the 100-yard backstroke. She recorded a PR time of 1:06.26 which was a scant .54 of a second off of third place and .59 of a second from the runner-up spot.
Gunderson recorded two lifetime personal records at the meet. She swam a 27.51 in the 50-yard freestyle and came home in 59.26 in the 100-yard freestyle.
UP NEXT: Concordia will finish off their 2021 season when the compete against Minn.-Morris on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 1 p.m.
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