The Laker Woman Swim team competed at NJCAA Championships at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, Florida where they were able to take 6th place just missing a third place finish by ten points. The team totals were Indian River State College 1181, South Georgia State College 591, Iowa Central Community College 379, Southwestern Oregon Community College 377, Lincoln College 372 and Iowa Lakes Community College 370, followed by 6 other teams.
The national meet is a four day long meet with two session each day. Prelims in the morning and finals at night, which makes for a lot of swimming!
The Lakers National women's swim team was composed of eight woman: Monique Dias, Shayna Asuncion, Michelle Harrison, Gabriela Reis, Brenda Neves, Sarah Reid, Meghan Harrison, and Madison McCarthy.
The first day: Started off with the 50 breaststroke where Neves took 5th, Asuncion took 8th, and Reis took 10th. The 1,000 saw Michelle Harrison just miss out on points taking 19th. The 200 IM was up next and Dias was able to squeeze into third place moving up two spots from prelims. The team of Dias, Neves, Asuncion, and Reis were able to pull off a sixth place finish in the 200 medley relay.
The second day:Started off with the 200 freestyle relay with the team of Reid, Harrison, McCarthy, and Harrison touching the wall in 10th place. The 400 IM saw Dias finish with another 3rd place and Asuncion finished fourth. Neves and Reis took on the 200 freestyle with Neves placing 5th breaking the school record and Reis placing 9th. The 400 medley relay fared better than the 200 medley seeing the team of Dias, Neves, Asuncion, and Reis taking fourth place.
The third day:Started off with a bang for the Lakers with Asuncion placing 6th in the 100 IM setting a new school record in the process. Reis continued the push for the Lakers in the overall team scores with a 8th place finish in the 500 freestyle. Neves was able to pull out a third place finish in the 100 breast, just one second of the school record. Dias pulled out a forth place finish in the brutal 200 fly, with teammate Michelle Harrison finishing in 9th. The night ended with the 800 freestyle relay with the team of Neves, Reis, Asuncion, and Dias taking second with over five seconds between them and the third place finishers.
The last day: Dias got things started off for the Lakers with a 5th place finish in the longest event the 1650 freestyle. Then Neves, Asuncion, and Reis teamed up in the 200 breaststroke taking 2nd, 3rd, and 8th respectively. The last event of the meet was the 400 freestlye relay which the team of Neves, Reis, Asuncion, and Dias were able to take third in the event.
The Women were able to rack up 2 school records, 10 All-American performances, and 12 Honorable Mention All-American Performances at the meet.
"Nationals is always an exciting meet but this Nationals was more competitive and challenging both physically and mentally on all the athletes. The competition pool was outdoors and it just so happened that a cold front moved through when the meet was going on causing it to also rain two of the four days. This made it difficult for the athletes to stay warm but even with the bad weather the women were able to do amazing things. I scored out the meet from the psych sheet and it wasn't supposed to be that close of a meet. The difference between 6th place and third place was supposed to be around 120 points but the Lakers swam their hearts out and came within 10 points of finishing third. That is a great improvement from last year's 8th place finish. I am so proud of what the women were able to accomplish this year and I wish the sophomores the best of luck next year as they transfer on and continue to swim and I am excited to have the returners back so we can get that third place finish next year!" said Coach Anderson.