No. 7 Women's Swim/Dive Posts Highest Finish at D3Shootout, Takes Third

Top-three finishes in several events propelled the No. 7 Hope College women's swimming and diving team to a third-place finish on Saturday as the D3 Shootout concluded at the University of Chicago.

The Flying Dutch compiled 590 points to match their highest finish ever in the D3 Shootout. Pomona-Pitzer (624.5 points) won the meet in the final event, snapping Chicago's (614.5) four-year winning streak. Both teams were ranked eighth in the latest national rankings.

Hope also achieved an NCAA B cut in the 400 medley relay, while fifth-year Greta Gidley (Franklin, Michigan / Mercy) achieved a national standard in the 200 individual medley.

Gidley placed second in the A final of the 200 IM with a season-best time of 2:04.78. Her mark is under last season's invited time for the 200 IM at the NCAA Division III Championships.

The 400 medley relay squad of freshman Makenzie Baldwin (Holland, Michigan / West Ottawa), senior Madi Remenschneider (Holland, Michigan / West Ottawa), sophomore Emme D'Errico (Farmington Hills, Michigan / Farmington) and freshman Claudia Busse (Grand Haven, Michigan / Grand Haven) combined for a season-best time of 3:49.40 to place third in the event.

Assistant Coach David Jolly was pleased with the team's performance over the weekend, which saw impacts from new faces on the team combined with the seasoned experience of the upperclassmen swimmers.

"Overall, we are in a really good spot," Jolly said. "Our training has been consistent, and when you have consistency, you execute swims. Over the course of the last few days, everyone did what they were capable of doing. "That bodes well for a couple of weeks when we head to Kenyon."

Baldwin capped off her first major collegiate meet by improving her NCAA B cut in the 200 backstroke. She finished second in the A final after touching the wall in 2:01.95, marking the fifth-fastest time in Hope history.

In the B final of the 200 back, senior Katie Hermann (Canton, Michigan / Mercy) placed second with a time of 2:04.02 and was out-touched by four-hundredths of a second.

Baldwin also won the B final of the 500 freestyle, cruising to a time of 5:02.36. In the process, she became the fourth Hope swimmer to complete the event in under 5:03.

In the 100 butterfly, senior Laurel Wasiniak (Northville, Michigan / Northville) placed third in the B final (57.97) while Gidley (57.50) finished 7th in the A final as the pair swam nearly identical times.

Hope also added a pair of second-place finishes in relay events.

The mixed 400 freestyle relay team of Evan Harris and Christian Hoeksema from the men's team, combined with senior Bella Turner (Chelsea, Michigan / Chelsea) and Busse from the women's team, finished second with a time of 3:16.19.

In the 200 freestyle relay, the team of Gidley, Busse, Turner and Wasiniak were out touched by the squad from Pomona-Pitzer. Hope clocked a time of 1:34.17, 14-hundredeths of a second behind the leader.

Freshman Grace Dawson (Jackson, Michigan / Western) placed seventh in the three-meter diving event, a performance that was not missed by Jolly.

"You can't win championships without divers," Jolly said. "I believe that Grace, and Finn (Sanders) from the men's team, are going to have a big effect come February."

The format of the D3 Shootout allows each of the 10 competing teams to bring eight swimmers plus a diver. Teams entered two swimmers in each event – one in an A flight and the other in a B flight.

The meet featured some of the best teams in NCAA Division III from across the country, including #8 Chicago, #8 Pomona-Pitzer, #14 WashU, #16 Swarthmore, #20 Trinity (Texas), #25 Washington & Lee, along with (RV) SUNY-Geneseo, Rochester Institute of Technology and UW-Eau Claire.

Hope will take a week off before traveling to Gambier, Ohio, for the Total Performance Invitational, hosted by No. 5 Kenyon College. The meet will take place from Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 20-22, with prelims and finals each day.

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Players Mentioned

Emme D'Errico: Sophomore; Psychology

Katie Hermann: Senior; Exercise Science

Madi Remenschneider: Senior; Psychology

Bella Turner: Senior; Psychology

Laurel Wasiniak: Senior; Engineering

Makenzie Baldwin: Freshman

Claudia Busse: Freshman

Grace Dawson: Freshman

Greta Gidley: Fifth Year; Elementary Education

Players Mentioned

Emme D'Errico
: Sophomore; Psychology

Katie Hermann
: Senior; Exercise Science

Madi Remenschneider
: Senior; Psychology

Bella Turner
: Senior; Psychology

Laurel Wasiniak
: Senior; Engineering

Makenzie Baldwin
: Freshman

Claudia Busse
: Freshman

Grace Dawson
: Freshman

Greta Gidley
: Fifth Year; Elementary Education