Swim and Dive Compete at MIAC
Greg Miller, Staff Writer
The Augsburg swim and dive team competed in the four day MIAC Championships last Wednesday through Saturday at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center, finishing 11th as a team.
On Wednesday, the quartet of Kristin Kaldahl, Kyra Billman, Felix Mjelde and Morgan Mangel set a season-best time of 2:11.70 in the 200-yard medley relay, beating their old time by almost 10 seconds. Their time was good for 9th in the race.
Thursday started with Mangel racing in the 50-yard freestyle and finishing 10th in the preliminaries with a 24.83-second performance and then finishing 12th in the finals with a 24.90-second performance. Both of these performances were faster than Mangal’s old record of 25.34 from last season. Mangal holds eight of the ten fastest times in the 50-yard freestyle in Augsburg history.
Friday saw Mangal compete in the prelims of the 100-yard backstroke, where she hit a personal best of 1:04.41, placing her 6th all-time in Augsburg school history. Billmann competed in the 100-yard breaststroke, where she finished with a time of 1:16.50, nearly a three-second personal best. Billmann, Kaldahl, Mjelde, and Mengel also competed in the 200-yard freestyle relay where they finished with a five-second personal best time of 1:54.62.
To round out an impressive individual weekend, Mangel placed 26th in the preliminaries of the 100-yard freestyle with a 56.42, and the last action on Saturday saw the 400 yd freestyle relay cut 15 seconds off of their seed time to finish with a 4:15.55, their best time of the season.
The young swim and dive team will look to use the momentum gained from the MIAC championships to better themselves in the conference standings next season.