Greta Gidley Swims to NCAA Championships Runner-Up Finish in the 200-Meter IM

Sophomore Greta Gidley, pictured

A year ago, Greta Gidley chose not to swim competitively for personal reasons. On Wednesday night, the Hope College sophomore nearly became the school's national champion in the 200-yard individual medley.

Gidley, who joined the Flying Dutch last fall as a transfer, finished as NCAA Division III runner-up in the women's 200-yard individual medley during Day 1 of the national championships in Greensboro, N.C.

Clocking a school-record time of 2 minutes, 1.07 seconds, Gidley joined Dawn Hoving (1993) as Hope national runner-ups in the event and co-owners of the Flying Dutch's highest 200 IM finishers. Sophia Verkleeren of Williams College (Mass.) won the national title in 1:59.47.

"She likes big meets, and they don't get any bigger than this one for us," head coach Jake Taber said. "It's been a big process for her this season. Her strength is the consistency with which she trained throughout the season. She's gotten stronger."

The four-day NCAA Championships at Greensboro Aquatic Center continue on Thursday, March 16, at 10 a.m. with preliminaries and 6 p.m. with finals. Both sessions will be streamed on ncaa.com.

Hope is competing in four events, including Gidley in the 100-yard butterfly, freshman Laurel Wasiniak in the 200 freestyle, the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 medley relay.

The Flying Dutch enter Day 2 in seventh place with 46 points.

Gidley (Franklin, Michigan / Mercy HS) led a pair of First Team All-American performances for Hope in the 200 individual medley after moving up two spots from her pre-meet seed. During the morning prelims, Gidley set a Hope record with a swim of 2:01.25.

Sophomore Sara Kraus (Rockford, Michigan / Rockford) placed eighth with a swim of 2:03.11 after being seeded 12th.

Wasiniak (Northville, Michigan / Northville) took 26th with a prelim swim of 2:05.80. The three swims are among the four fastest in Flying Dutch history.

Hope was one of three schools to have three 200 IM swimmers among the top 26 finishers.

"It's nice to have a group of IMers training together. They're all better because of each other," Taber said. "I think they're learning from each other. When the collective mission is to do as well as you can at the national championships as opposed to trying to beat a teammate, it can turn out pretty good."

Kraus and Wasiniak also swam on Hope's 10th-place 200 medley relay that earned All-American Second Team distinction.

Freshman Katie Hermann (Canton, Michigan / Mercy), Kraus, senior Alyssa Kerkman (South Bend, Indiana / Saint Joseph), and Wasiniak recorded a time of 1:43.56. During prelims, the relay was 0.08 from advancing to the 'A' finals.

In 3-meter diving, sophomore Abby Koops (Grand Rapids, Michigan / Forest Hills Northern) earned All-America Second Team honors with a 13th-place total of 396.20 points.

Koops moved up the standings after finishing 25th in the event at nationals as a freshman.

Taber said Koops learned from competing in a more challenging schedule this season.

"Last year with our schedule, Abby felt she knew our region pretty well as a freshman, but when she got to nationals she didn't know many of them," Taber said. "Going to the Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) Diving Invitational was a blessing for us. It created a little confidence for her--I think the way she progressed during the season and got national recognition."

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