A Little Bit Cleaner And More Efficient

MOORHEAD, Minn. (11/06/15)—The second meet of the year proved to be another optimistic outing for the inexperienced Cobber team. Concordia had two event wins and several solid swims before losing 166-93 to NCAA Division II opponent MSU Moorhead.

"We're a little bit cleaner, a little bit more efficient," commented head coach Talia Butery. "We are definitely seeing some major progress even in two weeks."

Concordia's event wins came from juniors Libby Hardwick and Sarah Nelson. Hardwick swam a 2:19.30 in the 200-yard backstroke to earn her first event win of the season. Her time is less than three seconds off the mark she qualified for the "B" final with at last year's conference meet.  

"Libby had an awesome 200-yard back which we were expecting out of her," said Butery. "It's one of her strong races. She's really goal orientated so she will say what she wants to do before the race and she just goes out and does it. It's pretty fun to watch."   

Hardwick also earned a top 2 finish in the 100-yard backstroke. She swam a 1:05.25 and placed second in the event.  

Nelson also picked up her first event win on the year as she raced to a 57.95 in the 100-yard freestyle and won the race by .92 of a second over freshman teammate Alaina Dehnke.     

Butery was excited about Nelson's swim. She said, "Sarah had a great race in the freestyle today. She was really aggressive. Her turns were right where they needed to be. She's been working really hard on that stuff in practice so it's nice to see the results of her hard work."   

Nelson also second in the 100-yard butterfly after touching the wall in 1:04.91. She finished off the meet by placing third in the 200-yard buttefly at 2:27.73

Junior Annie Herkenhoff had her second straight solid meet of the season, A crossover from the basketball team, Herkenhoff put in lots of yards on Friday. She finished second in the 1650-yard freestyle in a time of 19:20.40 and was also third in the 500-yard freestyle with a mark of 5:42.66. It was the first time she has ever swam a 1650-yard freestyle in her career and her finishing time would have put her just outside the top 20 at last year's MIAC Meet. He time in the 500-yard freestyle was almost five seconds faster than the time she swam in the season opener two weeks ago.

Concordia also had two other athletes post a pair of top 3 finishes each. Sophomore Ann Marie O'Connell was third in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly while freshman Ciara White was second in the 100-yard breaststroke and third in the 200-yard breaststroke.

O'Connell's finishing time in the 200-yard freestyle was 2:13.55 and she clocked a 1:08.13 in the 100-yard butterfly.

White came home in 1:12.65 in the 100-yard breaststroke and 2:37.48 in the 200-yard breaststroke.      

WHAT'S NEXT: Concordia will have another two-week break before finishing off their three-meet home stand to start the season. The Cobbers will host Minn.-Morris on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 12 p.m.