Morning Results / Evening Results

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Today the Calvin women's swim and dive team continued the Calvin Winter Invite with day two of competition at the Venema Aquatic Center. After another full day of events the Knights sit in fourth place with a team score of 712.5. Grand Valley claimed the top spot with a score of 1354.5 while Northern Michigan and Findlay round out the top three.
 
Calvin kicked things off in the morning session when junior Emma Merkel (Wyoming, Mich./Grandville, sophomore Zoe Poe (Bridgeville, Pa./South Fayette Twp.), sophomore Maria Heeres (Holland, Mich./Holland Christian), and freshman Holly VanderWeele (San Antonio, Tx./Great Hearts Monte Vista North) nabbed third place in the 800-freestyle relay with a time of 7:51.43.
 
Calvin started the evening session strong in the 200-medley relay with Merkel, Bajwa, Elyse Radawski (Jenison, Mich. Jenison), and senior Meghan Bengelink (Holland, Mich./Holland Christian) took third in the 200 with a time of 1:42.09. This time was also enough to qualify them for the NCAA B' cut.
 
The team made up of Schutter, Ganger, VanderWeele, and Andrews also competed in the 200 medley and finished with a time of 1:49.68.
 
In the 100 butterfly, sophomore Alea Casipit (Midland, Mich. Herbert Henry Dow) was the top Knight finisher in fifteenth place with a time of 59.81 while Radawski was close behind in sixteenth at 59.88. The 400 IM was the next event of the evening where Poe shined for the Knights when she finished in fourth place at 4:32.46, a new school record. 
 
Merkel continued her time in the pool when she took second place in the 200-freestyle with a time 1:51.95 while Bengelink finished in fourteenth place (1:59.29) and VanderWeele took fifteenth place (2:00.13).
 
Bajwa finished her night with a third-place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:03.27, the sixth best time in the country and good enough to make the NCAA B' cut. Andrews (1:00.22) and McNearney (1:03.38) wrapped up the day's competition in the 100 backstroke.
 
On the diving side, junior Veronica Skipper (Chicago, Ill./Northside College Prep) performed well enough to compete in the final tomorrow evening.
 
COACHES COMMENTS: "Probably our best session yet," Calvin head coach Dan Gelderloos said. "Our Friday night practices have been the most energetic of the week so it wasn't too much of a surprise coming off a morning that went pretty well for us. We set one school record, several 'B' cuts and some relays that qualified for NCAAs. I've been grading them every session. We started out with a B- and moved into the A's yesterday and we've kept it in the A's so far, so we're looking forward to hopefully keeping it there tomorrow into the 200s of stroke and into the 400 Free relays."
 
UP NEXT: The Knights will round out the Winter Invite tomorrow at the Venema Aquatic Center with the morning session beginning at 10 AM followed by the evening session at 4 PM.