SIOUX FALLS – Juniors
Chantal Kasch and
Jenna Krahn recorded NCAA "B" cuts to lead an impressive opening day performance by the No. 14 University of Sioux Falls Swimming Team at a quad dual competition at the Midco Aquatic Center on Friday. The second day of the quad dual will begin at 11 a.m., Saturday.
Aside from the "B" cuts, USF registered six wins in nine individual or relay events at the quad dual which included USF, Augustana, Minnesota State and MSU Moorhead. The dual competition will wrap up tomorrow and the partial scores show USF with substantial leads over Minnesota State, 107-73; Augustana, 126-41; and MSUM, 131-45.
"It is really exciting to see how we performed on the opening day of our first home meet," said second-year USF Head Coach
Chris Hamstra. "We were on fire today. It was great to see us continue to perform so well in the pool," he added.
Kasch had a big day with an individual win and was part of the winning 400 medley relay. In the 200 breast, Kasch had her NCAA "B" cut in which she clocked a 2:19.99 to win the event. Also in that event, freshman
Abigail Ford was third in 2:27.43. USF's 400 medley relay, which included Kasch along with sophomore
Elizabeth Spaans, sophomore
Ella Johnson and Krahn clocked a 3:52.87. USF also placed fifth in the 400 medley in 4:02.64 with a squad of junior
Julia Zanto, Ford, freshman
Ursula Demarquet and junior
Giulia Marcon.
Krahn led off the winning 200 free relay with her NCAA "B" cut of 24.0 (50 free) and helped USF win in 1:36.97. The rest of the relay included Demarquet, Marcon and Spaans. USF also had two other top seven placements in the 200 free relay. The Cougars team of freshman
Valerie Childs, junior
Tori Bailey, and seniors
Leah Eagleton and
Kyjana Webber was fifth in 1:40.03 while the squad of junior
Sydnie Saddoris, junior
Evelyn VanDeMark, freshman
Burke Henderson and Ford was seventh in 1:41.80.
Krahn also picked up an individual win in the 100 free as she clocked a 52:29 to lead a contingent of five USF placers in the top eight of the event. Marcon was second in 52.69 while Demarquet was fifth in 53.85; Eagleton, seventh, 54.23 and Webber, eighth, 54.28.
Through the course of the meet, USF showed extraordinary depth in building their big leads in the dual competitions. One example was the 100 free but USF had multiple placers in most of the events competed on Friday.
In the 500 free Marcon picked up a win in 5:12.36. With her participation in two winning relays, Marcon was part of three victories and also had the second in the 100 free. Also in the 500 free,
Ella Johnson was second in 5:13.87 with VanDeMark, fourth in 5:16.80 and Alex Sanchez-Clark, eighth in 5:24.96.
Johnson also picked up in the 100 fly with a season-best clocking of 56.07. With that time, Johnson would rank fourth in DII. Also in the 100 fly, Childs clocked a 58.96 to claim fifth and Demarquet was sixth in 59.15.
Aside from helping USF to wins in the two relays, Spaans also had two top three placements. She was second in the 200 back in 2:11.14 with Zanto fourth in 2:13.43. In the 200 IM, Spaans took third in 2:11.87. USF also had a fourth place finish from Johnson in 2:12.01 while Kasch was sixth in 2:13.47 in that same 200 IM.
USF claimed three of the top four spots in the 1000 free as
Alex Sanchez Clark led the way with a second place finish in 10:50.36. Also for USF, freshman
Makenzy Kennedy was third in 10:51.56 while Ford was fourth in 10:56.04.
