Event Wins, Top 3 Finishes And Season Best Times

MOORHEAD, Minn. (11/15/14)—Concordia posted a pair of event wins, a dozen top 3 finishes and a plethora of season-best times in their dual meet with St. Benedict. The Cobbers wound up losing 205-73 to the Blazers in the lone home dual meet of the season for CC but .  

The sophomore tandem of Libby Hardwick and Sarah Nelson continue to pace Concordia in the pre-Christmas segment of the season. The duo earned the event wins for the Cobbers and both had another top 3 finish at the meet.

Hardwick won the 50-yard backstroke and was third in the 100-yard backstroke while Nelson won the 100-yard freestyle and was second in the 100-yard butterfly. Hardwick earned her victory in the 50-yard backstroke by clocking a time of 30.17. It is the first time this season that Hardwick has swam the 50-yard backstroke event. She then went on to capture third place in the 100-yard version of the event by finishing in a time of 1:06.50. Nelson captured her win in the 100-yard freestyle by sprinting to a time of 58.45 which was .56 of a second faster than the second-place finisher. It is the second straight dual she has won the 100-yard freestyle and her time is a season best.  Nelson's time of 1:04.24 in the 100-yard butterfly is also a season best mark and was less than a second off the winning time for the race.

Ann Marie O'Connell and Madeline Johnson were the other two Concordia athletes to have multiple top 3 finishes at the meet. O'Connell was third in the 50-yard breaststroke and second in the 200-yard individual medley. She swam a 36.36 in the 50-yard breaststroke and then came home in 2:24.58 in the 200-yard IM. Her time in the IM is the fastest by any CC swimmer in the event this year.

Johnson recorded her top 3 finishes in the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke. She finished third in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 2:10.36 and was second in the 100-yard backstroke with a mark of 1:06.11. Both times are season bests for Johnson. She shaved off over a second in the 100-yard backstroke and three seconds in the 200-yard freestyle.

Siri Berry, Kayla Rauchwarter, Andrea Kittleson and Lily Johnson had the other top 3 finishes on the day for CC. Berry was runner-up in the 50-yard freestyle in a season-best time of 27.63. Rauchwarter captured third place in the 1-meter dive competition while Kittleson was third in the 100-yard breaststroke and Lily Johnson was third in the 500-yard freestyle. Kittleson had a time of season-best time of 1:20.38 in the 100-yard breastroke and Lily Johnson touched the wall in 5:47.61 in the 500-yard freestyle. It marks the first time this season that she has swam under 6-minutes in a competitive meet.

Concordia will continue with their stretch of four straight dual meets to open the season when they travel to Morris to take on Minn.-Morris on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 4 p.m.