by Odille Parker
The Hope College men's swimming and diving team claimed a 186-102 victory in Saturday's dual meet against Albion College at the Holland Aquatic Center.
The Flying Dutchmen started out strong with the first four events of the afternoon, including a victory in the meet's opening 400-yard medley relay with Colin Kalkman, Conor East, Ted Lockett and Conner Halberg (3:30.94).
Junior Bailey Smith, freshman Dallas Fisher and sophomore Ben Catton each contributed two first-place finishes. Smith (Battle Creek/Lakeview) touched first for the 1650-yard freestyle at 16:40.54 and the 500-yard freestyle at 4:47.14. Fisher (Highland/Detroit Catholic Central) took the win in the 100-yard backstroke coming in at 53.45 and in the 200-yard IM at 1:57.19. Catton (Holland/Holland Christian) came in at 1:44.45 in the 200-yard freestyle and 1:56.92 in the 200-yard backstroke.
Hope claimed four more first-place finishes, totaling 11 for the meet, including:
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Sophomore Conor East (Farmington Hills/North Farmington) touching in at 1:56.08 in the 200-yard butterfly;
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Freshman Conner Halberg (Novi/Northville HS) coming in at 47.48 in the 100-yard freestyle;
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Freshman Christian Dunaitis (Commerce Township/Detroit Catholic Central) in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:13.17; and
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The 200-yard freestyle relay of East, junior Jackson Uyl (DeWitt/DeWitt), freshman Cooper Osgood (Saline/Saline), and Catton, finishing in 1:25.95
In diving, sophomore CJ Gillengerten of Haslett (Haslett) took second place in both the 1-meter (139.90) and 3-meter (153.35) boards.
The Flying Dutchmen's next meet is at Kalamazoo College on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 1 p.m.
