NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Carleton College women’s swimming and diving team won 14 of 16 events and cruised to victory over the University of St. Thomas in the first dual meet of the season. The Knights won the first seven events of the meet, including a pool record performance in the meet-opening 400-yard medley relay.
In the first event, the medley-relay quartet of Kale Zicafoose (Jr./Omaha, Neb./Westside), Kate Alexander (Sr./Tigard, Ore./Tualatin), Grace Cormier (Rockford, Ill./Boylan Catholic), and Maggie Alexander (So./Tigard, Ore./Tualatin) bested the Thorpe Pool mark established in 2007.
First-year swimmer Molly Spence (Tacoma, Wash.) won the very next event, also in record fashion. She established new team and pool standards with a time of 10:44.10 in the 1000-yard freestyle. That broke the previous record held by Maroya Spalding since 2001.
Spence later won the 500-yard freestyle and swam the leadoff leg in the Knights’ victorious 400 freestyle relay, earning her honors as the team’s swimmer of the meet.
"St. Thomas is a very strong program and one that is up and coming,” said Carleton head coach Andy Clark. “For the Carleton women to dominate in the fashion that they did, it reflects the quality of depth that the team has. We still have plenty of room for improvement, and the ladies need to be focused and build on details associated with technique and race strategy."
Zicafoose and both Alexanders sisters would each go on to win multiple individual events.
Zicafoose posted victories in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events, Maggie Alexander was first to the wall in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races, and Kate Alexander won three events: the 100- and 200-yard yard breaststroke and the 200-yard individual medley.
Other event winners for Carleton include: Kelsey Ihinger (Sr./Eden Prairie, Minn.) in the 200-yard butterfly, Sophie Pilhofer (Fy./Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Visitation) in the 50-yard freestyle, and Sydney Weydemeyer (Jr./Santa Fe, N.M.) on the 3-meter diving board.