Results
The men's and women's swimming teams combined for six first and six second place finishes Saturday at Beloit College in the final tune-up before the conference meet in less than two weeks.
The Prairie Fire women tallied 60 points for a third-place finish behind runner-up Carroll University (72) and host Beloit College, which finished with 124 points and swept its own Midwest Conference triangular.
Sophomore Zoey Kudla (Ypsilanti, Michigan) had a strong meet for the Prairie Fire. She won both the 200 and 400 yard individual medleys by sizeable margins: 20.3 seconds ahead of the runner-up from Beloit in the 400 IM and nearly three seconds faster than the second-place finisher, also from Beloit, in the 200 IM.
Junior Tory Kassabaum (St. Louis, Missouri) also made a significant contribution. She won the 500 yard freestyle 2.97 seconds ahead of Beloit's Nora Holte, finished second out of 11 swimmers in the 100 yard freestyle -- won by Holte -- and scored points by placing third in the 100 yard backstroke.
Sophomore Anna Claypool (Portland, Oregon) and senior Kelly O'Connor (Flossmoor, Illinois) each placed second in one event, leading to scores for the Prairie Fire. Claypool was the runner-up in the 200 yard backstroke and she took third in the 100 yard butterfly. O'Connor finished second in the 100 butterfly to Carroll's Adrienne Salazar.
Junior Tyler O'Neill (Bloomington, Minnesota), junior Jun Cho (Wilmette, Illinois) and first-year swimmer Alex Jandernoa (Grand Haven, Michigan) each won an individual event for Knox and all three swam a leg in the 200 yard medley relay team that finished second to Carroll.
O'Neill -- last week's Midwest Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Performer of the Week -- finished first in the 200 yard backstroke, edging out Beloit's Greg Schalla. Jandernoa won the 1650 yard freestyle the first time he competed in the event this season. Cho took top honors in the 200 yard individual medley.
Cho, Jandernoa and O'Neill were joined by junior Jeff Wickman (Naperville, Illinois) in the 200 medley relay team that beat out Beloit College for the remaining points in the race. Wickman also scored for Knox in the 100 yard backstroke, the 50 yard freestyle and the 500 yard freestyle.
O'Neill also added second place finishes in the 100 yard breaststroke and the 100 yard butterfly. Carroll's Alex Schneider won the 100 Fly over O'Neill by just .37 of a second.
Next up for the Prairie Fire is a trip to Grinnell College for the Midwest Conference Championships. The three-day competition begins February 18.
