Results
Jacksonville, IL - The Prairie Fire women's and men's swim teams got contributions from many in sweeping the field on January 28 at a triangular hosted by Illinois College.
The Knox women's squad defeated host Illinois College 85-35 and Eureka College 99-12 while the men's team downed IC 62-44 and Eureka 71-18.
First-year swimmer Susannah Lodge-Rigal (Bloomington, IN, Bloomington) had a big day, winning the 200 freestyle and the 1650 freestyle while swimming a leg on two winning relay teams. Her time in the 1650 free was more than 40 seconds faster than her previous best and ranks as the 7th fastest in the Midwest Conference.
"For Susannah to drop over 40 seconds in the 1650 was amazing," Coach Jonathan Powers said. "I was worried she had gone out too fast since her 500 split was faster than her best stand alone 500 but she swam a remarkably consistent race and finished strong."
The Prairie Fire had nine swimmers win at least one individual event and six win two or more. The teams also swept the 200 medley and freestyle relays.
Senior Tyler O'Neill (Bloomington, MN, Perpich Center for Arts Education) and junior Patrick Inness (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg) each won three events and were part of the two first place relays. O’Neill took first in the 100 breaststroke, the 200 backstroke, and the 200 IM. Inness won the 200 freestyle, the 50 freestyle, and the 100 freestyle.
Three other women’s swimmers besides Lodge-Rigal placed first in two individual events -- seniors Tory Kassabaum (Webster Groves, MO, Webster Groves) (100 backstroke and the 500 freestyle), Bess Cooley (Shorewood, WI, Shorewood) (200 breaststroke and 200 IM), and Anne Heberle (Lodi, CA, Tokay) (50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly).
Single event winners were junior Zoey Kudla (Ypsilanti, MI, Greenhills ) (200 backstroke), first-year Colleen Shelly (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg) (100 freestyle), and junior Alan Ning (100 butterfly).
O’Neill, Inness, Ning and first-year Matthew Klich (Chicago, IL, Guerin Prep) won the men’s 200 medley relay while O’Neill, Inness, Ning, and senior Jun Cho (Sungnam, South Korea, New Tier) placed first in the 200 freestyle relay. Lodge-Rigal, Heberle, Cooley, and Kassabaum won the women’s 200 medley relay. Heberle, Kassabaum, Lodge-Rigal, and Shelly swam to victory in the 200 freestyle relay.
"I'm really pleased with how people are swimming at this point in the season," Powers said. "I really like the heart of this team. We finish races strong and always seem to win the close races.”
One of those close wins was posted by Heberle in the 50 freestyle while Ning placed second by .08 seconds in the100 freestyle.
Both teams are getting contributions from across the board. “I’ve got a big group of seniors who I’ve relied on for the last couple of years, so it has been really exciting to see the younger swimmers step up and perform well,” Powers said.
The Prairie Fire, now 5-1 in dual and triangular meets in 2011-2012, concludes the regular season on February 4 with a meet at Beloit College against the Buccaneers and Carroll University.
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