The Lake Forest College men and women’s swimming and diving team closed out their season at the Midwest Conference Championship, hosted at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, on February 13th-15th. The men battled for first place, earning their second championship title in a row, while the women placed second for the third straight year.
“We competed hard, and we really overcame some adversity,” said head coach Vadim Tashlitsky, who was awarded the Men’s Coach of the Year at the meet. Tashlitsky was happy that the countless hours of training paid off for the team. When asked about the men’s repeat championship, he said, “I have a great group of guys who all came together at the right time.”
This year’s Men’s Championship title is the 9th in program history for the Foresters. In addition to the 10 championship titles that the women have won, the men and women’s swimming and diving team have earned 19 conference championships, making them one of the most successful athletic programs at the school.
Lake Forest College was honored with individual recognition as well during the awards ceremony. Christina Pekar ‘15 was named Women’s Diver of the Meet, Victoria Karker ’18 was named Women’s Swimmer of the Meet, and Sam Freedberg ’17 was named Men’s Swimmer of the Meet.
“Beating the 13 year losing streak last year when we won against Grinnell, and facing those same odds coming into the meet again this year and still being able to come out on top is just truly incredible,” said Freedberg.
In addition to winning 15 events and setting 13 program records, the Foresters met the NCAA B-Cut qualifying standard nine times, broke five MWC records, and made 46 new or improved entries onto the list of the top five performances in program history in nearly every event.
Senior Captain Brock Moné attributes a lot of the success of the men and the women to the intensive conditioning and training that the team undergoes. “Besides our extremely dedicated coaching staff on the pool deck, the opportunity to work with Ty Van Valkenburg in the weight room for the first time this year provided us with a new advantage over the conference,” he said.
Karker and Freedberg achieved highly competitive NCAA B-Cuts and have put themselves in a good position to compete at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championship in Shenandoah, Texas at the CISD Natatorium March 18th-22nd.
Divers Christina Pekar and Sarah Pekar earned scores that qualify them for the NCAA Region 1 Diving Meet at the University of Chicago, February 27th-28th, where they will compete for the opportunity to dive at Nationals.
All the Foresters will continue to swim and dive with their respective clubs during the off-season to come back next season ready to train and compete at a high level, both individually and as a team.
