ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Carleton College women’s swimming and diving team took part in its first dual meet of the season, falling 177-116 to the University of St. Thomas. The Knights won five events on the evening, with Milana Socha (Jr./Chesterton, Ind./Chesterton) figuring in three of those. Sophie Pilhofer (Sr./Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Visitation) broke another pool record, this one coming in the 50-yard freestyle.
The schools combined their women’s team scores with the men’s scores to determine the winner of the Margate Memorial Trophy. This year, St. Thomas prevailed 364-222.
Socha won both the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races. She posted a narrow victory at the shorter distance, reaching the wall in 54.70 to win by 0.03 second. At the longer distance, she concluded with more than a three-second margin, posting a time of 1:58.60. She fell a bit shy in a bid for a three-peat, taking second in the 500-yard freestyle.
Grace Cormier (Sr./Rockford, Ill./Boylan Catholic) finished a close second in the 100-yard backstroke competition as she touched the wall at 1:02.85. She recovered to prove victorious in the 200 backstroke, with a mark of 2:17.18 that bested teammate Brittany Salazar (Fy./San Francisco, Calif./Waldorf) by three-tenths of a second. Cormier later added a second-place time in the 200-yard individual medley.
Pilhofer set a new Anderson Pool record when she prevailed in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.40. That eclipsed the previous standard by 0.22 second. She later added a second-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly.
The tightest race of the evening was the final event, the 200-yard freestyle relay. Pilhofer, Erin McDuffie (Sr./Anchorage, Alaska/Service), Madison McBride (Fy./Elko, Minn./Lakeville South), and Socha recorded a time of 1:39.75 and edged the top quartet from St. Thomas by 0.02 second.
The Knights will participate in the “Hour of Power” Relay for Sarcoma Research on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 4 p.m.
