Aqua-'Cats Streak Is Over At Five
ALLENDALE, Mich. â€Ã‚“ The NMU womenâ€Ã‚™s swim team waslooking to win their sixth consecutive GLIAC Swimming and Diving Championshipthis past weekend at Grand Valley State University. Well the streak is over as Indianapolis won the womenâ€Ã‚™s side ofthe meet with 487.50 points, Grand Valley was second with 415 points andNorthern Michigan was third with 400.50 points.
The first event of the final day was the 800-yard freestylerelay. The Aqua-â€Ã‚˜Cats placed third inthe event as Kristy Vermillion, Lindsey Vermillion, Larisa Graham and SanPechek swam a 7:55.21. L. Vermillionwas seventh in the 1650 freestyle (18:34.13).
Shelly Ruspakka swam a 2:21.97 in the 200 backstroke tofinish in the 11th spot. The100 freestyle the Aqua-â€Ã‚˜Cats went one-two as Dena Quick won the event with atime of 52.54 and teammate Pechek was less than a second behind her with a timeof 53.38. Katie Worley placed 12thin the event with a time of 55.96 as she swam in the B final.
Graham won the B final for the 200 breaststroke and placedseventh in the event with a clocking of 2:31.76. Anna Herman was the lone Aqua-â€Ã‚˜Cat to place in the 200 butterflyas she was fourth with a time of 2:17.79. The womenâ€Ã‚™s three-meter diving saw NMU place two divers in the event asKatie Cole was second with 376.40 points and Lindsey Bobay was fifth with278.65 points. Cole missed first placeby over a point as the first place diver scored 377.95 points.
The final event of the meet saw the Aqua-â€Ã‚˜Cats out-touchAshland in the 400 freestyle relay to win the race. NMU swam a 3:34.90 as Ashland swam a 3:35.16.
Bob Laughna, the interim head swimming coach at NMU, summedup the meet for the Aqua-â€Ã‚˜Cats. â€Ã‚œTheyswam hard through the entire meet,â€Ã‚ Laughna said. â€Ã‚œThere were some fast times and some great performances by manyswimmers as well as some great dives by the divers.â€Ã‚ÂÂ
The team will swim at a last chance meet on March 1-2 beforeheading to the NCAA II National Swimming and Diving Championships in GrandForks, N.D., from March 12-15.
