Back-To-Back Dual Meets Help Cobbers Ramp Up MIAC Preparations

JAMESTOWN, N.D. (01/22/2022)---Concordia ramped up its MIAC Championship Meet preparations by competing in dual meets on back-to-back days against top-level competition.

The Cobbers posted multiple season-best times as they prepare for next month's conference meet. Concordia had six Top 3 finishes in their dual against MSU Moorhead on Friday, but wound up dropping a 198-72 decision. CC then traveled to Jamestown on Saturday and once again saw significant time drops from multiple athletes in a closer 124-86 defeat.

Concordia started the back-to-back dual weekend by getting event wins from freshmen Hailey Jaeger and Kiernan Darling. Jaeger claimed the victory in the 100-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 56.65. She continues to inch towards the school record in that event and her finishing time at MSUM was only 1.5 second off the top program mark.

Jaeger also posted a third-place finish in the 100-yard individual medley after touching the wall in 1:06.14.  

Darling earned big points for the Cobbers in both diving competitions. Her best showing came in the 3-meter event where she posted a career-best score of 174.60. That mark puts her in the Top 15 in the MIAC in the 3-meter event.

Rachel Andersen, Jess Bray, Emily Oswald and Brienna Timm also posted Top 3 finishes at MSUM – and all four recorded season-best times in those events.

Andersen and Timm had their Top 3 finishes in the 200-yard freestyle. Andersen was second at 2:16.37 and Timm came home just after with a time of 2:17.59.

Bray was runner-up in the 50-yard butterfly with a season-best mark of 29.52, while Oswald was third in the 50-yard breaststroke with a season-best time of 37.75.

The top relay performance on Friday came from the quartet of Kaitlin Cramer, Jaeger, Camille Gunderson and Bray who posted a time of 1:50.16 in the 200-yard freestyle relay and placed second.

The Cobber kicked it up a notch on Saturday at Jamestown where they came away with a trio of first-place finishes and multiple of runner-up marks.

Andersen, Jaeger and Timm picked the wins at Jamestown. Andersen had the most dominating performance of the day. She won the 1000-yard freestyle by almost a full minute. Her time of 12:51.10 was seconds off of her season-best mark.

Jaeger won both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. She sprinted to a 26.24 in the 50 free which earned the win by a mere .03 of a second. She then came away with the weekend double in the 100 free with a winning time of 57.45 which was almost 2-seconds faster than the second-place finisher.

Timm claimed her first event win of the season when she swam a 6:20.33 in the 500-yard freestyle.

Cramer had a pair of second-place marks at Jamestown. She was runner-up in the 200-yad freestyle at 2:11.94 and second in the 200-yard backstroke with a season-best time of 2:23.26.

Oswald and Chantelle Schmidt gave the Cobbers a 2-3 finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. Both runners lowered their season-best times by a significant amount in the event. Oswald came home in 3:05.71 and Schmidt touched the wall in 3:08.34. Both swimmers shaved over 4-seconds over their previous best 2021-22 time.

Darling was the runner-up in both 1-meter diving events on Saturday. She scored 141.05 in the first five voluntary dives and then 177.93 in five optional dives.

UP NEXT: Concordia will finish off the dual-meet portion of its schedule when they host Minn.-Morris on Friday, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m.