INDIANAPOLIS — The Western Illinois men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams both finished in fourth place at the House of Champions meet hosted by IUPUI Nov. 13-14.
The women’s squad finished with 403 points led by a pair of first-place individual finishes by seniors Laura Dinkelmann and Lauren Trondle, while the men’s squad came up with 348 points led by two fifth-place finishes by sophomore Brandon Wilkinson.
Dinkelmann remained undefeated on the season in the 200-yard butterfly as the senior again improved her time with a first-place finish in 2:07.09. Dinkelmann’s has posted a top-10 school record time in each of her four meets this season, the most recent of which was the fourth-fastest in school history. Dinkelmann also placed sixth in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:22.53 and seventh in the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 1:00.04.
Trondle won her fourth different event of the 2009-10 season by taking first in the 400-yard IM in a time of 4:40.97. Her time ranks as the seventh-fastest time in school history. Tronde also finished fourth in the 200-yard IM in a time of 2:14.48.
The Western women also had a pair of top-10 individual finishes from both Taylor Martin and Alayna Colley. Martin finished sixth in the 100-yard butterfly in 59.79 and seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:10.15 while Colley finished 100-yard backstroke in a time of 1:02.46 and ninth in the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 2:15.47.
Other top-10 individual finishes for the Leatherneck women included Jamie Grau with a sixth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke in 1:10.13 and Shawn Fitzpatrick in the 1650-yard freestyle in 18:33.44.
In relays, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Martin, Katie Regan, Grau and Colley placed fifth in 1:43.26, the 400-yard medley relay team of Jessica Schnaiter, Grau, Martin and Colley finished fifth in 4:11.41, the 200-yard medley relay team of Schnaiter, Grau, Martin and Colley finished fifth in 1:53.64 and the 800-yard freestyle relay team of Trondle, Schnaiter, Fitzpatrick and Dinkelmann finished fourth in 8:19.57.
The Western men’s team had its best finishes of the day in relays, led by the 800-yard freestyle relay team of Wilkinson, Phil Kurz, Braydon Rudy and Jeff Davis, which finished third in a time of 7:19.59.
Also in relays, the 400-yard medley relay team of Mike Regan, Wilkinson, Kurz and Davis finished fifth in 3:40.79, and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Kurz, Regan, Davis and Wilkinson finished fifth in 3:16.72.
Individually, Wilkinson led Western by finishing fifth in both the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:01.34 and the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:14.96. Davis also had a pair of top-10 individual finishes with a ninth-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:53.25 and an eighth place in the 1650-yard freestyle in 17:05.05.
Other top-10 individual finishes for the men included Kurz with a seventh-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly in 59.93 while Brian Demijan finished 10th in the 100-yard backstroke in 56.78.
Matt Stiefel paced the Western Illinois divers with a second-place finish in the 1-meter event with a score of 208.65 while Molly Carignan took fifth in both the 1-meter event with a score of 182.35 and the 3-meter event with a score of 198.70.
The Western Illinois men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will be back in action at the Iowa Hawkeye Invitational Nov. 20-22 in Iowa City, Iowa.