KINGSPORT, Tenn. - The Lindsey Wilson women's swimming team notched a third place finish at the 2021 Mid-South Conference Swimming Championships. The Blue Raiders finish the three-day event with 391 team points, falling behind Cumberlands (Ky.) (winners with 801 points) and Indiana Wesleyan (second place with 698 points).
Notable accomplishments from today included Maaike Broersma breaking her own school record in the 200-yard backstroke, Allie Rutherford being crowned the conference champion in the 200-yard butterfly and head coach Alicia Kemnitz winning the Mid-South Conference men's and women's swimming Coach of the Year award.
Broersma, who set the 200-yard backstroke school record earlier this year (Jan. 27) at two minutes and 06.48 seconds, broke that record in the preliminaries today by swimming a faster 2:06.03 mark which earned her a provisional standard and a spot in the A-final. In the A-final, she swam an even faster mark of 2:04.92 to finish the race in second. The time was good enough to earn her another provisional standard and second team all-conference honors.
Also in the 200-yard backstroke, Annissa Koekemoer and Emma Phillips qualified for the B-final. Koekemoer notched a 3rd place finish and a provisional standard (2:15.38), while Phillips was 7th (2:28.52).
Rutherford, who finished third in the preliminaries of the 200-yard butterfly and added a provisional standard time (2:17.66), earned a spot in the A-final. She went on to win the A-final with a time of 2:10.31, earning her another provisional standard and first team all-conference honors.
Russo qualified for the B-final in the 200-yard butterfly. She ended in 3rd place at 2:39.30.
In the 1,650-yard freestyle, Jaye Farthing finished in the No. 7 spot (19:09.80) while Phillips (19:21.41) and Sarah Lawson (19:58.95) finished in 9th and 11th, respectively.
The 100-yard freestyle also featured a trio of Lindsey Wilson swimmers. Carlene Taylor finished fourth in the preliminaries with a provisional standard time (54.08) and earned a spot in the A-final. Savannah Schoeman and Juliana Villa both garnered a spot in the B-final. Taylor went on to finish 4th in the A-final while earning a provisional standard (53:11). Schoeman earned a provisional standard and second place in the B-final at 55:37. Villa also grabbed a provisional standard of 55.49 and fourth place in the B-final.
Lawson was the lone LWC swimmer in the 200-yard breaststroke, where she corralled a spot in the B-final. She went on to finish 6th in the B-final with a time of 2:52.58.
The 400-yard freestyle relay featured Schoeman, Koekemoer, Taylor and Broersma notching second place with a time of 3:37.25, which earned a provisional standard and second team all-conference honors.
Due to the NAIA cancelling the national championships, the Lindsey Wilson women's swimming team ends its 2020-21 campaign tonight in Kingsport.
