7 records fall at Liberal Arts Championships
ELSAH, Ill. – The Simpson men's and women's swimming teams combined to set seven school records and swam 19 season-best times out of 21 total swims to end the season on a high note at the 2012 Liberal Arts Championships held Feb. 16-18 at Principia College.
Steven Schmidt lowered three of his own school records, Hannah Yarborough set three and Nathan Schneider reset one mark.
"Without question this is the best performance I've witnessed in my time at Simpson," head coach Aaron Strain said. "It was a lot of fun to watch records get broken and season best times swam."
With only six swimmers competing, the final team scores didn't reflect the effort put forth by both teams.
"It was a great way to finish the season," Strain said. "We had a lot of top-20 finishes, and with a lot of young swimmers that is very encouraging."
The women's team finished 12th of 13 while the men took 11th of 11.
"This weekend helps legitimize our program and gives people some insight into the program that says 'hey, we can go here, work hard and achieve some big things.' We've always had great swimmers, now we need more depth."
Only a freshman, Yarborough left her mark on the record books by the end of the weekend, erasing records which were on the books for five years. Her first record came in the 500 freestyle, finishing in 5:39.32 to place 18th. She then set the school record in the 1,650 freestyle, touching the wall in 19:24.29 to place 13th. Her third school record was in the 1,000 freestyle, which she set as a split in the 1,650. Her mark there will stand at 11:39.01.
All of Yarborough's records were previously held by Melody Burugs, set at the Liberal Arts Championships in 2007.
Megan Lein added to the Storm's team points by qualifying for the finals in the 400 IM and the 200 breaststroke. She placed 13th in the 400 IM (5:19.09) and 16th in the 200 breaststroke (2:52.25), setting a season-best in the 400.
Simpson's other top individual performance came from Stefani Smith, who swam a season-best time of 2:33.44 in the 200 butterfly, placing 13th.
On the men's side, Schmidt reset his own school records in the 500 freestyle, 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke while Schneider lowered his own mark in the 200 butterfly.
Schmidt placed 14th in the 500 freestyle (5:05.00), 14th in the 100 backstroke (56.61) and 12th in the 200 backstroke (2:02.83).
Schneider took 15th in the 200 fly (2:21.92).
