For the Hopkins swim team, the annual Miami of Ohio Invitational at the beginning of December is the prime time to quality for the NCAA Championships, the ultimate goal for many members of the team.
This season proved to be no different. The Blue Jays picked the perfect moment to swim their best meet of the season
At the end of the weekend, a total of 22 Blue Jays -- 16 men and six women -- qualified for the Championships, which will be held in March. The men placed fourth at the meet, while the women were 12th. The fourthplace finish was an improvement over the men's 2004 standing, when they slipped in the tournament's last day from second to fifth, their final placement The women, however, did not improve on their 2004 finish, when they took home seventh place.
Individual performance from both teams, though, were exemplary. Two school records were broken by outstanding Hopkins swimmers.
Senior co-captain Tyler Harris set the school record in the 100-yard breaststroke preliminaries with a time of 56.80 and then placed fifth overall in the finals. Scott Pitz was the old record holder with a time of 56.91. Sophomore Ryan Kim was the other record breaker at the meet. Kim broke the 200-yard backstroke as well as won the event with a time of 1:50.22. Both swimmers qualified for NCAAs.
Harris and Kim certainly won't be traveling to the meet alone. Joining them on the men's team are senior co-captains Gary Itskovich and Sean Kim, as well as their classmates Zane Hamilton and Brian Sneed. Junior qualifiers are Rich Guerard, Kevin Walsh, David Strickland and Keith Parent, while Brad Test and Matt Fedderly will represent the sophomore class. The freshman class has four qualifiers: Colin Kleinguetl, Robert Sershon, Kyle Foust and John Kegelman.
On the women's side, Hopkins qualified six swimmers. Senior co-captain Katie Herbst and her classmate Kalei Walker were joined by juniors Allie Foster and Kelly Robinson. Sophomore Erica Pakkala and freshman Kristin Cunningham rounded out the women's side.
"This is usually a very exciting meet because it is mid-season and yet people still can get up and go fast even on a three-day rest," said Robinson. "The meet was overall very fast because we were against a lot of big D-I teams and some other fully-tapered teams such as Denison."
Besides Kim's record-breaking performance in the 200-yard backstroke, the men had 11 other top-ten finishes on Saturday to end the Invitational.
The Blue Jays finished with a total of just over 1,000 points among ten teams, several of which were very strong Division I programs. One of the top finishes for the Jays was the fourth-place 200-yard medley relay team of Kim, Harris, Parent and Test, which completed the race in a time of 1:33.17.
In the 100-yard freestyle, Hopkins had two top-ten finishes. Test and Guerard placed fourth and eighth, respectively. Guerard also placed in the top ten in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:37.60, good enough for a sixth-place finish.
In the 100-yard butterfly, two other Hopkins swimmers put down top-ten times. Sneed and Sean Kim placed fifth and eighth, respectively. Sneed finished in 50:59 while Sean Kim finished in 51.55.
The women also had some top-ten finishes on the last day of the competition in Oxford, Ohio. Foster placed third in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:23.39, while Herbst managed an eighth-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle. Her time was 5:04.77.
"Miami Invite was very successful for us in a few ways although not every single person did best times," said Robinson. "However, it was successful in regards to the amount of people who made it back [to the finals] at night, how many people did season-best swims and the way the team came together to cheer on each other and support those who needed it."
Both the men's and women's swim teams will next compete on Jan. 13 when they travel down to UNC-Chapel Hill for their first meet of the new year.
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