By Hayden Cogswell
The Colorado College men’s and women’s swim and dive teams took to the pool starting Jan. 17 for the 22nd annual CC Classic. The meet lasted three days and both teams finished the competition in second place.
The first day began with a win for the women’s team on the diving side of the event. The team took home the three-meter diving event as Riley Wadhera ’20 finished top with 415.48 points. CC continued to round out the top three within the event, as Peyton Classon ’23 and Jennifer Middleton ’21 finished behind Wadhera.
On the second day Kate Brush ’23 led the pack with an impressive performance, finishing first in both the 200m butterfly and the 100m backstroke. She wasn’t alone in her victories, however, as CC took home the top spot in the 200m freestyle with Kerren Matthews’ ’22 victory and a first place tie in the 100m freestyle for Jio Chang ’20. Classon returned to the diving board again to follow up her earlier second place finish with a first place finish in the one-meter diving event and a score of 458.85.
On the men’s side Cade Thumann ’22 put in a strong performance for the squad, earning two victories in both the 100m backstroke and the 200m freestyle. Walker Martin ’21 also tied for first in the 100m freestyle. Both teams finished the day as winners of the 800m relay race.
The third and final day saw only more success for the Tigers, but ended in a second place finish for the event. Chang pushed until the final event as she captured first in both the 100m butterfly and the 200m individual medely, while Brush put in another impressive performance and took home first in the 500m freestyle.
On the men’s side, the team picked up wins in both the 100m butterfly by Eric Dallesasse ’20 and in the 200m backstroke by Julian Frerichs ’22. Frerichs was followed up in the 200m backstroke by Ben Laidlaw ’23 and Ethan Hanson ’21 as CC took the top three spots in another event.
With both teams finishing second in the competition, the teams marked down the weekend as very successful.
“We are really proud of how we swam at the classic. Our team did a lot of tough training over half block, so we are really excited that we raced and dove well,” Emily Erickson ’21 said. “We had a lot of fun watching the ‘Brute Squad’ boys (Jon Roddy ’20, Cole Thumann ’22, Gray Cullen ’22, and Topher Shepherd ’23) swim the mile, 500m free, 400m IM and 200m in both prelims and finals — we were all super proud of them.”
The Tigers now look to continue their season at the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championships in February, but can reflect on a successful season.
“Our team is looking forward to a great conference meet. We always look forward to resting up before we head to Texas and, with altitude on our side, we always look forward to fast racing,” Michael Heinonen ’20 said. “We have had an incredible season so far. With a good spread of talent from seniors down to our first-years, we are the deepest we’ve been in my time here, which has helped us out so far this year and should propel us to a successful conference championship.”
The depth of the team was clearly on display at this meet and will be key during upcoming conference championships.