After breaking multiple school records and personal bests, both the USD men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams earned third place at the Summit League Conference Championships in Rochester, Mich.
The USD women, who have placed third in conference the previous three years, tallied 544 points and the men reached their highest conference placing ever, scoring 413 points.
Head swimming coach Jason Mahowald said the team accomplished the majority of goals they set for themselves prior to the meet.
“Our goal was to be top three on both sides and we accomplished that,” Mahowald said. “Our goal is always to have almost everybody have a lifetime best and we came pretty close to that goal, and that’s almost impossible to get.”
For the Coyote women, senior Lizz Hoffman swam to a second place finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.60, and also earned two other top-four individual finishes at the meet.
Other top finishes for the USD women was junior Shannon Moceri who placed fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke, clocking in at 2:25.65.
Senior Janine James and sophomore Megan Chmielewski also tied for fifth in the 3-meter dive.
On the men’s side, senior Terry Rolfe placed fourth in the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 1:51.57 and senior Dane Van Arkel placed sixth in the 100 yard freestyle, clocking in at 46.37.
Aside from placing third at this year’s championships, a handful of the Coyotes’ most notable performances the meet will now go down in USD’s record book.
“(Shannon) Moceri broke the school record in the 100-yard breaststroke and was second in the event. That was the oldest school record on the women’s side,” Mahowald said. “Thad Stoddard broke the 100 yard backstroke record going under 50 seconds, the first guy in school history to go under 50 in the event. Terry Rolfe broke our school record in the men’s 200 IM by a little over two seconds. And then both of our 400-yard freestyle relay teams broke school records which was huge. Those are pretty fast records to break.”
The women’s 400 freestyle relay, consisting of freshman Corey Wannamaker, junior Kaitlyn Jefferson, sophomore Mariah Anderson and Hoffman, finished third with a time of 3:29.56. The men’s relay placed fourth at 3:05.64 and consisted of senior Stoddard, Van Arkel, junior Cody Horton and Rolfe.
Mahwold said he was impressed with the team’s performance at the meet and the amount of progress they made over the season.
“I am very happy with our performances,” Mahowald said. “Overall we had 90 season bests and 62 lifetime bests for our kids. Five school records were set. Our women’s team was third again, the same order it’s been the last three years: Oakland, South Dakota State and then (USD). Our men moved up from fifth last year to third this year so our men had a really good meet. Overall, I am very happy with how the kids performed.”
