The Hope College men's swimming & diving team received two top-three efforts from Charlie Emmert and Jeff Zita during the opening day of the Wheaton (Illinois) Invitational on Friday.
The two-day event concludes on Saturday, Dec. 6. Preliminaries begin at 10 a.m. Central, while the finals starting at 5 p.m. CST.
The Flying Dutchmen are fifth with 207 points.
Emmert, a freshman from Grand Blanc, Michigan (Flint Powers Catholic HS), swam a second-place performance in the 200 butterfly. He had a time of 1:56.09.
Teammate Nathan Rommel, a junior from Overland Park, Kansas (Blue Valley NW), was fifth in the 200 butterfly at 1:58.98.
Zita, a junior from Holland, Michigan (Holland Christian HS), placed third in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 58.07 seconds.
Photo of Jeff Zita by Steve Johnson
Hope came in fifth in the 800 freestyle relay. Emmert, senior Christopher Waechter of Ventura, California (Foothill Tech), junior Duncan MacLean of Grand Rapids, Michigan (East Grand Rapids HS), and sophomore Ryan Johnson of Milford, Michigan (International Academy), went 7:06.64.
MacLean took sixth in the 500 freestyle. He had a time of 4:45.55.
The Flying Dutchmen were sixth in the 400 medley relay. Sophomore Christian Otteman of Zeeland, Michigan (Zeeland East HS), Zita, Rommel and Johnson went 3:34.36.
Otteman was seventh in the 200 backstroke. He recorded a time of 1:57.99.
Hope took seventh in the 200 freestyle relay. Junior Trevor Billinghurst of Spring Lake, Michigan (Spring Lake HS), junior Samuel Gallmeyer of Grand Rapids, Michigan (East Grand Rapids HS), sophomore Jonathon Maat of Holland, Michigan (Holland HS), and Johnson went 1:27.06.
