By Kerry Yang
This past weekend, the Colorado College women’s swim and dive team finished an impressive third place at the seven-team Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) championships, held at the Josh Davis Natatorium in San Antonio, Texas. The Tigers finished with 775 points, narrowly falling to Southwestern University, with 789 points, and the 16-time defending champion Trinity University, with 1050 points.
On Wednesday, the first day of the meet, the Tigers took third place in each relay with Millie Benkert ’23, Emily Erickson ’21, Kate Brush ’23, and Jio Chang ’20 putting their best foot forward in the 200 medley relay. Benkert, Brush, Chang, and Selma Jukic ’20 performed equally well in the 800 freestyle.
Benkert reported on the team’s attitude coming off day one. “We had a ton of momentum going into Thursday because of Wednesday’s success,” said Benkert. “Everyone was definitely feeling good about their swims.”
Brush and Chang had impressive swims on Thursday as well, finishing third and fifth in the 500-yard freestyle and 200 individual medley, respectively. Colorado College’s 200 freestyle team, an impressive collaboration of talented swimmers consisting of Chang, Jukic, Maddie Heynen ’23, and Clara Sato ’23, placed third on Thursday.
Jukic also took full advantage of her last chance at a SCAC title, placing first in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:38:69.
On Friday, Erickson finished third in the women’s 100 breaststroke, earning all-conference honors. Additionally, Brush won her second SCAC title in 200-yard butterfly on Saturday, which secured the Tigers’ third place overall finish.
Reflecting on the weekend overall, Benkert was impressed by her team. “We’ve trained so hard all year, so I think we’re all just glad that our hard work paid off and we got the results we wanted.”
Peyton Wright ’23 looked forward to the future of the team. “We are really looking forward to off season lifts and being able to work with Scott and the weight room staff, because they’re phenomenal,” Wright said. “We’re going to graduate a lot of talent and all around great team members this year, so improvement wise, it’s kinda all about filling those girls’ shoes and getting stronger in the off-season,” said Wright about next year’s season.
The divers also had a strong showing. Riley Wadehra ’20, who previously won CC’s first-ever SCAC title in the one-meter event, finished fourth in both the one-meter and three-meter events, posting an “A” rating to qualify for the NCAA diving regionals.
“I’m really looking forward to having a big fun meet with a lot of good competition and getting to show off my dives for potentially the last time,” Wadehra said. “It’s always my favorite meet of the year.”
Peyton Classon ’23, Jennifer Middleton ’21, and Zivia Berkowitz ’21, also earned “A” ratings to qualify for the NCAA diving regional, which takes place on Febr 28 and 29.