Hillsdale Women's Swimming Fall Season-In-Review

The Hillsdale College women’s swimming team has had an extremely successful fall semester. The program maintains a current winning season with a 3-2 record. The fall semester culminated at the University of Notre Dame at the Notre Dame Invitational Swimming and Diving Meet, December 1-4, 2004. The Hillsdale women scored a team total of 250.5 points, which placed them 9th overall among 13 highly competitive Division I, II, and III teams.

This meet displayed the team members’ dedication and accomplishments over the past few months. There were numerous season best and career best swims, school records and NCAA time standards accomplished during this multiple day meet. By placing 16 swims in the evening finals, producing four top-eight finishes as well as 3 NCAA “B” time standards; Hillsdale College represented itself extremely well.

Junior Cylie Hoopingarner broke school records in the 100 Butterfly and the 100 Backstroke swimming a stunning 58.93 and 59.31, respectively. This earned her a fifth place finish in the 100 Backstroke, and a seventh place finish in the 100 Butterfly. Additionally, she placed eighth in the women’s 200 Backstroke with a time of 2:09.35 and placed 22nd in the 200 Butterfly with a time of 2:14.52.

Sophomore Amanda Smith placed 11th in the 50 freestyle with a season best time of 24.77, while freshman Tyler Patterson swam a 2:10.01 in the 200 butterfly placing 6th. The team swam extremely well in the relay events, placing all 5 relays in the top 20.

The Notre Dame Invitational finished out this semester’s competitions and the intense training before Christmas break. The team looks forward to continuing their success next semester. The remainder of the regular season has three meets scheduled in January and February. The GLIAC Conference meet will be February 16-19, 2005 at Wayne State University while the National Championships will be hosted by Rollins College March 9-12, 2005 in Orlando, Florida.