Foresters Post 68 Season-Best Times at TYR/CollegeSwimming.com Classic
Becky Shaak sets school and conference records in 500- and 1650-freestyle

Becky Shaak

Kelsey Hoeper

Ellen Stoehr

Alex Marks

Forester freshman Becky Shaak (Vienna, Va./James Madison) broke a pair of school and Midwest Conference records at the meet. Her runner-up time of 5:06.12 in the 500-frestlyle and winning mark of 17:41.22 in the 1650-freestyle are the fastest times in league history. Shaak also swam on the winning 800-freestyle and 400-medley relay teams and finished third in the 200-freestyle in 2:01.06.

Freshman Kelsey Hoeper (Medford, Ore./South Medford) and sophomore Emily Watts (Danville, Ind./Danville Community) also placed their names among the fastest sprinters in team history. After finishing second and tying the school record with a time of 54.15 seconds in the 100-freestyle on Friday, Hoeper shattered that mark while leading off Saturday's 400-freestyle relay with a split of 53.79. Watts placed fourth in the 100-freestyle in 54.98 seconds, moving her up the list to fourth in program history. Hoeper was also the runner-up in the 50-freestyle and finished her preliminary heat in that event in just 24.99 seconds, ranking her fourth in team history, just ahead of Watts' best time from last season.

Sophomore Ellen Stoehr (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) and freshman Alex Marks (Oregon, Ill./Oregon) are now among the best in team history in the butterfly and breaststroke, repsectively. Stoehr is now fourth in program history in the 200-butterfly after finishing second on Friday in 2:11.80. She was also the runner-up in Saturday's 100-butterfly in 1:00.39, which ranks her fifth in Lake Forest College annals. Marks won Friday's 100-breaststroke and his time of 1:00.07 in his preliminary heat ranks him fourth in team history.

Hoeper and Watts joined Shaak and sophomore Amy Finn (Horsham Pa./Archbishop Wood) on the victorious 800-freestyle relay team. Their time of 8:15.46 was more than nine seconds faster than the second-place team from St. Olaf. Freshman Amber Kerrigan (Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep) led off the Foresters' winning 400-medley relay and was followed by Shaak, Stoehr, and Hoeper. They finished in 4:09.24, nearly five seconds ahead of the runners-up from St. Olaf.

Kerrigan won both of the meet's backstroke events, finishing Friday's 200 in 2:15.17 and Saturday's 100 in 1:03.51. Freshman Meghan Mason (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sand Creek) placed sixth in the 100-backstroke in 1:06.98.

Fourth-place finishes on Friday included Kerrigan in the 200-IM (2:19.73) and sophomore Jennifer Steege (Hudson, Wis./Visitation) in the 500-freestyle in 5:31.57. On Saturday Watts and Hoeper were fourth and fifth in the 200-freestyle with times of 2:02.06 and 2:04.79, respectively, and Watts also finished fourth in the 50-freestyle (25.50).

In addition to Marks' victory in the 100-breaststroke, the Forester men had eight other top-six finishes. Mark was second and fellow freshman Stamen Tintikov (Chicago Ill./Lane Tech) fifth in Saturday's 200-breaststroke with times of 2:15.25 and 2:20.38. Tintikov was also fifth in Friday's 100-breaststroke in 1:04.15. Junior Mike Mackin (Berwyn, Ill./Fenwick) placed fourth in the 200-backstroke (2:00.15), sixth in the 100-butterfly (55.52), and third in the 100-backstroke (54.19). Other sixth-place finishes included freshmen Diego Ledesma (Chicago Ill./Lane Tech) in the 100-freestyle (50.14) and J.J. Conoscenti (Cocoa Beach, Fla./Cocoa Beach) in the 1650-freestyle (17:53.84).

Twenty-five Forester swimmers combined for 68 season-best times in their individual events at the two-day meet.

According to Lake Forest head coach Vadim Tashlitsky '00, the team "had a great first half of the season highlighted by great racing this weekend. Our kids are swimming lifetime bests in season and that's always encouraging. This group has the potential to rewrite our program's record books and I look forward to seeing them race after the break."

The Foresters will be on their annual training trip from January 2-10 and will compete again on Saturday, January 16 at the Illinois-Michigan Quadrangular at Wheaton College.