Hope College Sports Releases

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Hope Swimmers are Gold Medal Winners on
First Day of MIAA championships

Three individual and two relay titles highlighted the first day of competition for Hope swimmers at the MIAA championships being held at the Holland Aquatic Center.

After the first of three days of competition, Hope tops the men's standings while Calvin is leading among the women.

The Flying Dutchmen captured first place in four of six events to tally 166.5 points followed by Kalamazoo 116.5, Albion 110, Olivet 104, Calvin 81 and Alma 38.

Calvin was the winner in four of six women's event to tally 183 points followed by Hope 142, Kalamazoo 116, Albion 78, Olivet 65, Saint Mary's 49 and Alma 48.

A Hope highlight on Thursday was the dual gold medal performance in the 50-yard freestyle. Junior Kurt Blohm of Wilmington, Ohio broke the oldest mark on the MIAA books with a national qualifying time of :20.69. The previous MIAA mark of :20.86 was established by All-American Rob Peel in 1987. Blohm's time tied the Hope record first set by Peel in 1986. Senior Erika Steele of Portage, Mich. successfuly defended her league championship with a national qualifying time of :24.06.

Blohm and Steele won't have to travel very far to compete in next month's NCAA Division III championship because they will be held at the Holland Aquatic Center.

Freshman Daniel Gardner of Alma, Mich. captured the gold medal in the 500-yard freestyle with a national conditional qualifying time of 4:39.22.

The Flying Dutchmen won both of Thursday's relays. The 200-yard freestyle relay had a NCAA conditional time of 1:24.45 with a team of Blohm, junior Travis Barkel of Zeeland, Mich., sophomore Abram Glas of Kalamazoo, Mich. and senior Jeff Heydlauff of Chelsea, Mich. The same was true for the 400-yard medley relay with a conditional time of 3:28.63 behind a quartet of Blohm, senior Matt Waterstone of Holland, Mich., senior Chris Lininger of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Heydlauff.

Brothers Kyle (a sophomore) and Matt (a senior) Waterstone finished third (1:57.41) and fifth (1:57.73) respectively in the 200-yard individual medley.

The competition continues Friday with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. The meet concludes Saturday.