Ceperley, Minette lead Storm in strong field at Grinnell

GRINNELL, Iowa - The Simpson swimming and diving teams participated in the competitive Pioneer Classic, Friday and Saturday, with Kate Minette breaking two school records across the meet.

The Storm also had many swimmers set personal and season-bests, alongside many high placings in a large, competitive field.

As she has done throughout her career, Minette was a standout performer. Minette placed in the top-five in five of the eight events she swam, including a second-place finish out of 76 swimmers in her speciality, the 50 yard freestyle. Minette set a career-best and school record with a time of 24.57, marking the first time she swam sub-25 in the event. Her fine performance was capped off with a third-place finish in the 100 yard freestyle, beating her previous career-best and own school record by one one-hundredth of a second, recording a time of 54.54.

The Storm relay teams also excelled in the pool. Minette was joined by teammates Katie Oosterhuis, Emma Haynes, and Breana Hinson to place fifth out of 30 teams in the 200 yard freestyle relay, coming just two hundredths of a second from the school record set in 2001. Oosterhuis, Haynes, and Minette then were joined by Katelyn Smith in the 400 yard freestyle relay, also placing fifth.

Elsewhere, freshman Emma Owen became just the third Storm swimmer in history to go under 20 minutes in the grueling 1650 yard freestyle. Owen took sixth out of 17 swimmers in a time of 19:54.76. Owen's time of 5:36.93 also gave her the third-fastest time in school history in the 500 yard freestyle.

For the men, Jay Ceperley continued his love of the Grinnell pool after setting his career best in the 100 yard butterfly last year in the same pool. This year, Ceperley swam a time of 56.23, just off his career best but good for fifth all-time. Ceperley now owns seven of the 11 fastest times in school history in the event.

Jared Oosterhuis and Adrell Mulgrew-Truitt both cracked inside the top 10 in school history with their times in the 50 yard freestyle. Oosterhuis clocked a 23.15 while Mulgrew-Truitt swam the race in 23.37.

Overall, the women placed sixth while the men took seventh, but most other teams fielded several swimmers and teams in each event.

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Both teams do not return until after the new year, when they will host St. Mary's (Minn.) in a duel.