The 11th-ranked Hope College women's swimming and diving team swept every swimming event during the evening finals of the MIAA Championships on Thursday at the Holland Aquatic Center as the Flying Dutch took firm control of the meet with two days to go.

After two days of competition, Hope leads the field with 471 points, 122 points ahead of second place and No. 13 Calvin University. Kalamazoo College is third with 198 points, while Alma College (165) and Albion College (163) are battling for fourth place. The University of Olivet is in sixth place with 52 points.

The Flying Dutch, seeking their sixth straight MIAA championship, have won all six swimming events so far at the league meet. They have already set a pool, MIAA and school records.

Seniors Greta Gidley and Laurel Wasiniak joined freshman Makenzie Baldwin in winning events on Friday.

Gidley (Franklin, Michigan / Mercy) won the 200 individual medley for the fourth time in her career, lowering her own MIAA record with a season-best 2:00.47 – the fastest time in NCAA Division III so far this season. 

Gidley, who has six career MIAA titles, is the 13th swimmer in Hope history to win an event at the MIAAs four straight years. She is also the second swimmer in MIAA history to accomplish the feat in the 200 IM. 

Hope's Dawn Hoving (1991-94) is the only other swimmer in league history to win the event four times. 

"Greta is an exceptional talent, phenomenal IMer. We saw that tonight," Taber said. 

In the 200 IM, Hope placed seven swimmers into the championship final and took the top four spots, led by Gidley. Senior Katie Hermann (Canton, Michigan / Mercy) finished second with a time of 2:04.11, while sophomore Emme D'Errico (Farmington Hills, Michigan / Farmington) touched .46 seconds later to place third in 2:04.57. 

Senior Madi Remenschneider (Holland, Michigan / West Ottawa), junior Avery Bills (Traverse City, Michigan / Traverse City Central) and freshman Ella Cabbage (Traverse City, Michigan / Traverse City Central) placed sixth through eighth as every home swimmer lowered their time from the morning preliminaries. 

The Flying Dutch opened the night with a pool-record performance in the 200 freestyle relay, as the team of Gidley, freshman Claudia Busse (Grand Haven, Michigan / Grand Haven), Wasiniak (Northville, Michigan / Northville) and senior Bella Turner (Chelsea, Michigan / Chelsea) combined for a pool-record time of 1:31.89. 

Gidley led off the relay with a season-best 23.31 in the 50 free as Hope triumphed in the event for the third straight season.

Baldwin (Holland, Michigan / West Ottawa) snapped a 20-year old MIAA record in the 500 freestyle, dropping a time of 4:58.09 to top the old record of 4:59.53, set by Calvin's Becky Weima in 2006. 

Baldwin, who also became the first Hope champion in the event since Meghan Peel won in 2019, battled Calvin's Zoe Poe – the 2025 champion – for the first 350 yards before pulling away for the victory. 

Baldwin became the third swimmer in Hope history to swim the 500 faster than five minutes. She also qualified for the NCAA Division III championships next month with a mark faster than last season's invited time. 

"She went to Chicago in early November and showed us [the 500] might be a pretty decent event for her. Coming into the season, if I had to guess, I would have thought that she would double on Saturday and swim the 200 back and the 200 fly," Taber said. "I'm really glad we put her in the 500 at the D3 Shootout. She's gaining more and more confidence in the event."

Freshman Allyson O'Brien (Beverly Hills, Michigan / Wylie E Groves) placed third in the 500 free with a season-best 5:13.88, while freshman Brianna Elliott (El Paso, Texas / Maxine L Silva Magnet) and sophomore Katarina Schaefer (DeWitt, Michigan / St. Johns) took fifth and seventh.

Freshman Meredith Righter (Portage, Michigan / Portage Central) won the consolation final of the 500 free, dropping nearly eight seconds from her preliminary swim to win the heat in 5:28.61.

In the 50 freestyle, Hope took the top three spots. Wasiniak captured her third career MIAA title after dropping a time of 23.05 to set a new school record, topping the old mark of 23.09 set by Gidley last season. Busse posted an NCAA B qualifying time with a personal-best 23.16 – the third fastest 50 in school history – while Turner finished third in 23.41. 

Junior Madeline McGee (Ionia, Michigan / Ionia) won the B final, leading the heat with a time of 24.13. 

In diving, freshman Grace Dawson (Jackson, Michigan / Western) finished as the runner up on the 3-meter board, scoring 451.50 in the finals, just four-tenths of a point behind Albion's Wen Wadsworth-Curcuru. 

Junior Laura Zupancic (Fort Collins, Colorado / Liberty Common) placed third with a score of 449.95. Both Dawson and Zupancic posted NCAA qualifying marks in the morning preliminaries. 

Hope completed its sweep of swimming events and closed out the evening with a win in the 400 medley relay. Baldwin, Gidley, Busse and Wasiniak combined for a time of 3:44.74, over four seconds ahead of second-place Calvin. The Dutch extended their winning streak in the event to nine straight years.

In the consolation final of the 400 medley relay, the team of Hermann, Remenschneider, D'Errico, and Elliott topped the field by seven seconds, touching the wall in 3:49.22.

The MIAA Championships, sponsored by Collegiate Credit Union, will continue Friday-Saturday at the Holland Aquatic Center, with preliminaries starting at 10 a.m. and finals beginning at 5 p.m. each day.  Tickets can be purchased online at the door beginning 1 hour before each session.