By Jacob Greene
The swim team for Simpson University competed in the Logger Invitational at the University of Pudget Sound from Dec. 1-3.
The team had a successful meet. Four swimmers set multiple PRs (personal records).
Junior, Liam Schroeder had a huge meet. He set 2 personal records with 4 season bests. In the 200-yard fly, Schroeder’s time was 2:11.80 (in prelims). In the finals, it was 2:11.68. Which improved his previous time by 6.98 seconds.
“I feel like everyone did really well. Everyone was rested. Everyone was suited up. Everyone put their best in it,” Schroeder said.
A big part of the team's success is Coach Logan Friesen.
“With the change in coach over the past year, it really showed how well his coaching style works for us–it’s great,” Schroeder said.
Sophomore, Alannah Lucin set a new personal record in 4 events. Her biggest time difference was in the 100-yard fly, beating her time by 3.48. Lucin’s second-biggest improvement was in the 50-yard fly with a 2.5-second difference.
Freshman, Teo Barthelemy set 4 personal records. His biggest time difference was in the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1.69-second improvement. One of his other personal records was in the 50-yard breaststroke with a final time of 27.44 seconds–improving his time by 1.48 seconds.
Cloe Barthelemy broke two school records in the women's 100 butterfly (101.87) and backstroke event (1:04.37). She made the National provisional cut in the women's 100 freestyle. She is ranked 61st in the nation in the 100 butterfly, 42nd in the nation in the 100 freestyle, and 35th for the 50 freestyle (All according to the SU Athletic page).
On Dec. 8–less than a week later–Simpson had their first “home meet” ever. The meet was vs. Shasta Community College at Shasta’s Redding campus. It was a scrimmage, not an official meet.
Head coach Logan Friesen offered his thoughts on the scrimmage.
“It just kinda gauges what we can work on for February,” Friesen said.
There is a lot to look forward to going into the second half of the season.
“We had a great midseason meet. It was good to see where everybody is at going into the second half of the semester. We got a couple of weeks coming up, just some rest before we get back into some hard training in January. Then we’ll be back on the grind,” Friesen said.
There were positive takeaways from the scrimmage.
“I think everyone did pretty well. Doing every single event took a toll. But you know, it was fun, a lot of fast swims. Just an all-around good time,” Schroeder said.
The whole team did well, given the circumstances.
“Even though we’re all tired and finals is like taking a massive mental toll getting in the water, swimming is always fun to do–just to relax and take like a mental break from school,” Schroeder said, “[And] just to see where you’re at post-midseason.”
The team’s next meet is Jan. 6 in Santa Barbara at Westmont College.