Tate Sets Another Record, Women Finish Fifth

MWC Championships Conclude Sunday

by Nathan Baliva

Please Note: The men's and women's results were incorrectly flipped.

MONMOUTH, Ill. (02/19/2024) — Sophomore Cally Tate (Monmouth, Illinois) set another school record and finished in second place overall during the final day of the Midwest Conference Swimming & Diving Championships at Grinnell College on Saturday. The Monmouth College women's team moved up again on Sunday and finished in fifth place with 225 points while the men also gained a spot and finished in sixth place with 228 points.

WOMEN
Tate qualified for the A final in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:11.02. In the final she broke her own school record by more than two seconds, swimming 2:07.11. Tate finished second overall for 17 points and her second runner-up finish of the weekend.

Nicole Fitch (Marengo, Illinois) swam the fourth fastest 1650 freestyle in Monmouth history in 19:13.93. Her 10th place finish earned seven points.

Aiden Bach (Stetsonville, Wisconsin) swam 2:37.78 in the 200 breaststroke preliminaries to reach the A final. She bettered the time in the final and finished sixth in 2:37.00, the fourth best time in school history.

Mady Gaus (Herscher, Illinois) qualified for the B final in the 200 butterfly in 2:31.44 while Rudy Poffinbarger (Rockford, Illinois) qualified in 2:33.92. In the final, Gaus finished 11th in 2:31.44 and Poffinbarger was 13th in 2:34.74.

The women's 400 freestyle relay team of Tate, Fitch, Bach and Claire LaBadie (Griffith, Indiana finished seventh in 3:51.47.

MEN

Kody Coyne (Bluffton, Indiana) cracked the top 10 in the 200 breaststroke with a swim of 2:18.42 in the prelims and Ethan Main (Oneida, Illinois) also qualified for the B final. Coyne finished ninth overall as he won the B final in 2:17.81 for the ninth best time in school history. Main earned four points in 13th place at 2:24.79.

Luke Foster (Galesburg, Illinois) swam the 9th fastest 200 backstroke in the preliminaries in 2:03.38. He swam 2:03.68 in the B final and finished 12th to earn five points. Colin Heslin (Nashville, Tennessee) swam 2:06.65 in the prelims and 2:04.47 to finish 15th in the finals for two points.

Heslim swam the 6th best 200 butterfly in school history in the prelims with a time of 2:06.23 and Eli Wills (Blue Springs, Missouri) also set a top-10 PR in 2:11.26. In the B final. Heslin swam 2:04.85 to finish 12th and Wills was 13th in 2:11.72.

The men's 400 freestyle relay team of Tariq McLarty (South Holland, Illinois) , Foster, Wills and Tristan Kennon (Flossmoor, Illinois) finished sixth in 3:16.33.

Jaeden Peters (Greenfield, Indiana) finished eighth in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 8:02.84 as he earned 11 points. Brady Hild (Tremont, Illinois) picked up four points with a 13th place finish in 20:27.88.