This weekend brought a rough patch for the Belles. They faced No. 14 Calvin and Alma in their last meet of the regular season and lost to both teams. Calvin defeated the Belles by a score of 177.5-58.5, while Alma took over at 125-97.
While the team was not happy with its performance, the swimmers still showed improvements.
"As a team we were hoping to come out on top with a victory this weekend. We had some good swims, but not enough to win it," freshman Ellie Watson said.
As they have done consistently all season, the team's freshmen came through, racking up points and putting up early finishes.
Freshman Katie Griffin showed her strength yet again, coming in first place in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:02.14.
Watson also performed well, coming in second in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 11:04.93. This time was her best of the season and was the fourth-best time ever recorded for Saint Mary's for the event. Watson added to the night once again, coming in third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 58.22.
The third member of the freshman trio, Caila Poythress, finished third in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:06.69.
Another third-place finish was added by senior co-captain Sara Niemann in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:38.22.
From here, the Belles have two weeks to continue working together and pushing each other.
"Now we are just focusing on getting ready for our conference meet," Watson said.
The team will travel to Grand Rapids, Mich., from Thursday, Feb. 11, until Saturday, Feb. 13, for the MIAA Championships hosted by Calvin.
