Courtesy: Wheaton Athletics
The Thunder swimming programs completed a busy weekend on Saturday by hosting a portion of the 2021 CCIW Cup event. The CCIW Cup was hosted on Saturday at Wheaton (Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan and North Central) and Carthage (Carthage and Augustana). On Friday Millikin and Carroll competed at Carthage. Results from each event have been merged to compile results. While not a true CCIW Championship, and it will not appear in the CCIW record books, the event was held to give student-athletes the opportunity for a culminating experience this season. Prior to today’s event in Lederhouse Natatorium, the Thunder swimming programs held intrasquad events on Thursday and Friday, named the Thundercup.
Full results can be found here.
In Saturday’s CCIW Cup action, Wheaton freshman Anthony Fitzgerald set a school record in the men’s 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 55.56-seconds to post the top time across the three events. Junior Ben Griffith finished third in the same event with a time of 57.87-seconds and freshman Andrew Rogers recorded a time of 58.12-seconds in fourth place, which was the 12th fastest time in school history. Fitzgerald also posted the top time in the men’s 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:02.54, that is the second-fastest in school history. Griffith placed second in the event in 2:09.06 and Rogers had the third-fastest time in 2:13.03.
Junior Priscilla Min had the top time in the CCIW Cup in the women’s 400-yard individual medley with an effort of 4:39.41. Min finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:21.80 that is the fourth-fastest time in program history in the event and an NCAA B Cut. Senior Kiki Rogers finished in third in the 200-yard breaststroke with a life time best time of 2:28.53. Rogers had the second-fastest time in the women’s 100-yard breaststroke with an effort of 1:08.68.
Sophomore Abby Pardridge posted the top CCIW Cup time in the women’s 200-yard backstroke with an effort of 2:05.86, currently the second fastest time in Division III. Emily Hahn had the fifth-fastest time in the same event with an effort of 2:11.46. Abby Rutledge was third among the participants in the women’s 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:13.57.
Freshman Sophia Pelling’s time of 24.51-seconds in the women’s 50-yard freestyle was second overall, and her relay lead off of 24.38 was 12th in team history. Senior Kirsten Peters recorded a time of 24.67-seconds that was fourth overall. Pelling was also second in the women’s 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:58.17. Peters was second among the competitors in the 100-yard freestyle in 53.77-seconds and Pelling was fourth in 53.84-seconds.Freshman Connor Davis posted a top time of 52.49-seconds in the 100-yard backstroke that was more than a second faster than the second-place time of 53.61-seconds that was posted by Augustana’s Aidan McConkey. Davis recorded the second-fastest time in the 200-yard backstroke with an effort of 1:55.54. Teammate Ethan Kile was third in the same event in 1:56.40.
Sophomore Dawson Bremner recorded a time of 1:55.26 in the men’s 200-yard butterfly, the second-fastest time in the event across the CCIW Cup. Junior Gavin Patton was fourth in the same event with a time of 2:01.03. AJ Staiti placed third in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 50.97 seconds, the 11th-fastest time in program history. Freshman Elijah Chen tallied a time of 1:48.69 in the men’s 200-yard freestyle that was fourth-fastest across the 12 conference competitors in the CCIW Cup.
Sophomore Harrison Smith was second among all competitors in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:50.65. Senior Chris Plimpton registered a time of 17:41.46 in the men’s 1,650-yard freestyle to place fourth among all competitors. Sophomore Alex Murphree was just behind him in fifth with a time of 17:41.46. Senior Christian Cameron recorded the fifth-fastest time in the men’s 50-yard freestyle in 21.16-seconds.
The Wheaton men’s 200-yard medley relay of Davis, Fitzgerald, Cameron and Griffith had the fastest time in the event with an effort of 1:32.50. The quartet finished just ahead of the second-place time of 1:32.80 that was recorded by Carthage’s relay.
Wheaton recorded the top time in the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay as the quartet of Pelling, Peters, Adi Shepherd and Alex McKeaney registered a time of 1:37.32. The Thunder team of Pardridge, Pelling, McKeaney and Peters had the fastest time in the women’s 400-yard freestyle with a time of 3:36.50.
The foursome of Rutledge, Rogers, Pardridge and Peters had the top performance in the women’s 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:47.92. Wheaton took second in the women’s 400-medley relay as Pardridge, Min, Rutledge and Shepherd posted an effort of 3:59.64.
Note Worthy: In addition to his school record in the 100-yard breaststroke and his mark in the 200-yard breaststroke, Fitzgerald also set some new school marks in other events in Thundercup events earlier in the weekend with the fourth-fastest 200 individual medley in program history and the seventh-fastest 100-yard butterfly in the team record books…Smith swam a time of 51.09 in the 100-yard butterfly earlier in the weekend in the Thundercup that was the 12th-fastest in program history.