Women's swimming/diving team moves up to fourth-place at MIAA Championships

The Olivet College women’s swimming and diving team moved up one spot in the team standings today at the 2004 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships. The Lady Comets now stand in fourth-place with 186 points. Hope College leads the championships with 399 points.

Leading the way for Olivet was Jill Lingbeek (Plainwell High School). She placed third in the 100 butterfly, fourth in the 100 backstroke and swam a leg of the second-place 200 medley relay. In the preliminaries of the 100 buttefly, Lingbeek recorded a NCAA national championships “B” cut qualifying time of 1:00.27. During the finals, she had times of 1:00.41 in the butterfly and 1:01.91 in the backstroke.

Katherine Roesch (Oakland Twp./Lake Orion High School) was third in the 100 backstroke (1:01.67). Joining Roesch and Lingbeek on the 200 medley relay were Shannon McHugh (Manistique High School) and Kristi Miller (Marshall High School) with a school-record breaking time of 1:52.50. McHugh also finished third in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.66). Kristin Bloomquist (Holt High School) placed fourth in the one-meter dive with a score of 335.65 points.

Roesch, Janet Stam (Holland High School), Laura Herzog (St. Joseph High School) and Ashley Zaborski (Battle Creek/Harper Creek High School) set a school record in the 800 free relay (8:09.71) with a fifth-place finish.

In addition, Olivet also had four swimmers compete during the consolation finals action. Miller and Jaymee Scott (Holt High School) finished eighth and 12th, respectively, in the 100 butterfly. Stam was ninth in the 200 free (2:01.36) and Christina Coxon (Mason High School) was tenth in the 100 backstroke (1:06.05).

Action at the MIAA Championships concludes tomorrow, Feb. 21 at the East Grand Rapids High School Pool. Preliminaries will begin at 10 a.m. with finals starting at 6 p.m.