Successful Opening Weekend In Winona

WINONA, Minn. (10/19/19)---Concordia came away with 13 event wins and had four athletes post multiple-event victories in the season-opening weekend at St. Mary's.

The Cobbers won eight events in their dual with St. Mary's on Friday night but wound up falling 101-94 to the Cardinals. Concordia then won six events on Saturday in a triangular event with Iowa Community College and wound up tying St. Mary's 95-95 in the final score.

Concordia picked up three relay wins in the two meets and had freshmen Jessica Bray and Shelby Nolan, sophomore Alexandra Rasmussen and junior Allison Marcus all win two events on the weekend.

The Cobbers got double event wins from Bray and Marcus on Friday night. Bray started her Cobber career by winning the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. She swam a 2:11.73 in the 200 free and then four events later clocked a 59.79 in the 100 free.

Marcus earned her victories in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke. Marcus recorded a time of 2:31.70 in the IM and then went 1:18.13 in the breaststroke – the final individual swimming event of the meet.

Freshman Cami Gunderson was the other event winner for CC on Friday. She clocked a 1:12.11 in the 100-yard backstroke and won the event by 1.16 seconds.

The relay win for the Cobbers on Friday came in the 200-yard freestyle relay where the quartet of Anna Backes, Gunderson, Bray and Lindsey Biebl finished in a time of 1:52.87.

Backes also had a runner-up finish in the 1000-yard freestyle as she swam an 11:54.16. Biebl had the other second-place finish on Friday. She recorded a time of 1:13.27 to give CC a 1-2 finish in the event.  

One of the big assets for the Cobbers this season is the ability to score points in diving competitions. Nolan came through with event wins on both days in the 1-meter dive event. She scored 109.95 points to earn nine team points on Friday and improved to 141.95 points on Saturday.          

Concordia earned relay wins from the 400-yard medley relay team of Kaitlin Cramer, Marcus, Bray and Backes and the 400-yard freestyle of Gunderson, Lydia Larson, Biebl and Rasmussen on Saturday. The 400-yard medley relay team clocked a time of 4:34.09 while the free relay squad won the event in a time of 4:08.80.

Rasmussen and Backes won individual swimming events on Day 2 in Winona. Rasmussen earned victories in the 50-yard freestyle and 50-yard butterfly and Backes won the 200-yard freestyle. Rasmussen swam a 26.58 in the 50-yard free to come away with her first collegiate win and then followed it up with a time of 29.37 in the butterfly. Backes won the 200 free with a mark of 2:10.24.

UP NEXT: Concordia will host its home opener on Saturday, Nov. 2 when they battle Minn.-Morris in the Memorial Auditorium pool.