The Lawrence University (Viking) women’s swimming and diving team season ended at the MWC Championships with an impressive third place finish February 10-12 in their own home pool.  The Lady Vikes were considerably more depth than the last two years’ fourth place showings and were clearly in a run for second place.  Coming into the championship, The Lawrence women had beat the eventual second place team from Lake Forest, however that victory was clearly a depth advantage.  After a DQ in the prelims of their 400 Medley Relay, it was obvious at the Lady Vikes needed to perform at their best for the rest of the meet to still have hope for a second place showing.  The overall performances by each team member was outstanding with numerous PRs and significant time drops, however in the end the Lady Vikes had to settle with a third placing.   In the big picture, the effort, inspiration and determination far outweighed the missed opportunity.  In fact, all but two female swimmers had at least one lifetime best performance over the weekend.   

Leading the Lady Vikes was freshman Hayley Vatch (Elmhurst, IL) placing a team high second in the 1650 freestyle (18:40.00) and junior Meredith Claycomb (Sioux Falls, SD) placing in the top 6 in three events 100 breast (1:13.07), 200 breast (2:36.86) and 200 IM (2:20.29).  Last season’s co-MVPs Jenni Hair (Hawthorne Woods, IL) with a third in the 1650 (18:52.82) and fourth in the 400 IM (5:00.85), and Alice Shepro (Wayne, IL) with two sixth placings in the 500 free (5:30) and the 1650 free (19:12.96) also turned in impressive performances.  Probably the overall most outstanding contributor was team captain Heather Prochnow (Warrenville, IL) who placed third in the 100 fly (1:02.05) and fourth in the 200 fly (2:23.26) and additionally helped as the anchor in each 200 and 400 freestyle relays.  Two of the more valuable members of the team during the season were sophomore divers Sam Heinritz (Appleton, WI) and Marissa Valette (Naperville, IL).  Our divers combined to score 80 points for the team with great performance in the diving well.  As stated previously the biggest factor was our depth and these seven other Lady Vikes (Mollie Bodin Plymouth, MN; Lisa Eddy Marianne Griffin Warrenville, IL; Chrissie Nelson Naperville, IL; Hannah Sobek Billings, MT; Mandy Schlais  Northfield, MN; and Sam Szynskie, Green Bay, WI) who scored significant points for the team adding the great balance to the line-up.  In fact, the scoring was to our advantage as placings went to18 places with three heats of six for scoring purposes.