Swim/Dive "Grateful" to Compete in "Be Better;" Meet

Saturday's meet for the Hope College men's and women's swimming and diving teams was much more than an opportunity to compete and better their times or scores.

The Flying Dutchmen and Flying Dutch took part in the "Be Better;" Invite at Calvin University. The non-scoring meet also features teams from the University of Michigan and Davenport University.

The "Be Better;" Invite benefited the Be Better Wellness Center by started by Steve and Jill Miskelley of Holland, parents of Holland native and University of Michigan swimmer Ian Miskelley, who committed suicide two years ago. Ian's sister, Chelsea, attended Hope College and competed on both the cross country and track and field teams.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, in 2020, 21 percent of U.S. adults experienced mental health issues — a total of 52.9 million Americans.

"It was a heavy day. Mental health is a real thing. We haven't shied away from talking about it," head coach Jake Taber said. "We were grateful to be a part of this. We really wanted to do everything we could to increase awareness for mental health and made the most of the opportunity we had in the pool. I felt like we did that."

The "Be Better;" Invite featured traditional events for the teams that covered all three NCAA Divisions as well as non-traditional events.

In one race, swimmers did not know the order for their intermediate medley races until it flashed up on the scoreboard.

In another, swimmers did five 100-yard events where they had to start off the block every two minutes.

One relay featured men's and women's swimmers racing together.

"It was hard enough to keep track of what was going on in our two lanes," Taber said with a smile. "It was nice to change the pace."

In the 400 mixed medley relay, junior Ben Catton (Holland, Michigan / Holland Christian HS), sophomore Colin Kalkman (Zeeland, Michigan / Holland Christian), freshman Katie Hermann (Canton, Michigan / Mercy) and freshman Greta Gidley (Franklin, Michigan / Mercy) combined for a second-place finish of 3 minutes, 28.06 seconds.

Catton swam with Ian Miskelley at Holland Christian.

"It is a pretty special experience," Catton told The Holland Sentinel. "Some of these people, we haven't seen in a while. To all collectively come back in a sport that Ian loved, and doing it together in honor of him is really special. It is really reassuring that the area of the sport is being brought to light. Hopefully this spreads to other places and mental health becomes part of the sport, especially in a sport as grueling as swimming. Bringing that to light is going to make us all better people and better athletes."

Hope returns to competition on Friday-Saturday, Nov. 4-5, at the D3 Shootout hosted by the University of Chicago.

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Players Mentioned

Ben Catton: Freestyle; Junior; Business/Economics

Colin Kalkman: Fly/Back/Free; Sophomore; Biology

Greta Gidley: Freestyle/IM; Sophomore; Elementary Education PreK-3, 3-6

Katie Hermann: Breaststroke/IM; Freshman; Exercise Science

Players Mentioned

Ben Catton
: Junior; Business/Economics
: Freestyle

Colin Kalkman
: Sophomore; Biology
: Fly/Back/Free

Greta Gidley
: Sophomore; Elementary Education PreK-3, 3-6
: Freestyle/IM

Katie Hermann
: Freshman; Exercise Science
: Breaststroke/IM