No. 8 Women's Swim/Dive Excels During Day 1 of Kenyon's Total Performance Invite

The No. 8 women's swim/dive in second after opening day of mid-season meet

The eighth-ranked Hope College women's swimming and diving team recorded some of the fastest swims in NCAA Division III on Thursday as the Flying Dutch opened competition at the Total Performance Invite at Kenyon College.

Seven teams are in the field, including No. 3 Kenyon, No. 11 Carnegie Mellon, No. 15 Case Western Reserve and No. 24 SUNY Geneseo. West Chester (Mass.) and Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) are also competing.

After the opening day of competition, Hope sits in second place with 351 points. Kenyon leads the field with a score of 578.5.

Hope opened the meet with the fastest 200 freestyle relay time in NCAA Division III so far this season, posting a winning time of 1:32.46.

The team of fifth-year Greta Gidley (Franklin, Michigan / Mercy), senior Bella Turner (Chelsea, Michigan / Chelsea), freshman Claudia Busse (Grand Haven, Michigan / Grand Haven), and senior Laurel Wasiniak (Northville, Michigan / Northville) also lowered Hope's NCAA qualifying time by over a second. Wasiniak, who anchored the relay, posted a 22.63 on her way home to secure the victory.

Gidley added a victory in the 200 individual medley with the third-fastest time in NCAA Division III to date. After grabbing the top seed from the morning preliminaries, she swam a 2:03.26 in the A final to lower her NCAA B cut.

Senior Katie Hermann (Canton, Michigan / Mercy) also established an NCAA B qualifying time in the 200 IM with a season-best time of 2:04.91, coming in under the invited time from last season's meet to place fourth in the A final.

Sophomore Emme D'Errico (Farmington Hills, Michigan / Farmington) completed the trio of Hope swimmers in the 200 IM A final, placing seventh with a personal-best time of 2:05.89. With her finish, D'Errico moved into sixth place on Hope's top 10 list, jumping three spots from her previous best time.

In the 50 freestyle, Wasiniak and Turner notched a pair of NCAA B qualifying times as both swimmers placed in the top five of the A final. Wasiniak finished third with a time of 23.25, while Turner placed fifth, touching the wall with a personal-best time of 23.29. Both marks are under the invited time to the NCAA Championships from a year ago.

Freshman Makenzie Baldwin (Holland, Michigan / West Ottawa) finished fourth in the A final of the 500 freestyle with the third-fastest time in Hope history. Baldwin clocked a 5:01.75, improving upon her previous season-best of 5:02.03 from the morning session.

In the final event of the evening, the team of Baldwin, Gidley, Busse and Wasiniak combined to place second in the 400 medley relay. The squad finished with a season-best 3:27.41 to record the third-fastest time in NCAA Division 3 so far.

This is the fifth consecutive year that Hope has traveled to Gambier, Ohio, for the mid-season meet, where all the teams suit up and typically see the fastest times of the first half of the season. During the competition, swimmers participate in preliminaries in the morning, then the top 30 swimmers from each event compete in one of three finals during the evening session.

The Total Performance Invite continues Friday, Nov. 21, with preliminary sessions beginning at 10 a.m., followed by finals at 5:30 p.m. Five individual events will be held, in addition to a pair of relays. The diving competition also begins on Friday with the women's one-meter event.

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Players Mentioned

Emme D'Errico: Sophomore; Psychology

Katie Hermann: Senior; Exercise Science

Bella Turner: Senior; Psychology

Laurel Wasiniak: Senior; Engineering

Makenzie Baldwin: Freshman

Claudia Busse: Freshman

Greta Gidley: Fifth Year; Elementary Education

Players Mentioned

Emme D'Errico
: Sophomore; Psychology

Katie Hermann
: Senior; Exercise Science

Bella Turner
: Senior; Psychology

Laurel Wasiniak
: Senior; Engineering

Makenzie Baldwin
: Freshman

Claudia Busse
: Freshman

Greta Gidley
: Fifth Year; Elementary Education