It took 3 pool records and a victory in the final event for the Illinois Tech men’s team to eek out a 1 point victory over Lake Forest College 111-110, on Saturday. The meet began with the 200 Medley Relay team of E-Fann Saung, Jef Larson, Ryan Feuerstein and Andrew Mehr combining to set the pool record for the Scarlet Hawks. Later in the meet, Jef Larson swam again and broke his own pool record in the 100 Breaststroke. The meet concluded with Lake Forest and Illinois Tech going head to head for the meet win and the pool record. Both teams finished over 2 seconds under the old pool record, though the foursome of Feuerstein, Saung, Luke Shorette, and Mehr touched first by .22 seconds to claim the pool record and win the meet. Aside from the three pool records, the only other wins for IIT came from Brandon Toro (1M and 3M diving) and Andrew Mehr (200 IM).

For the Illinois Tech women’s team, there were a number of first place finishes en route to a 131-65 win over the Foresters. The Scarlet Hawks touched first for both relays, while individual wins were completed by Katie Latour (800 Free), Liz Wong (200 Free), Brianna Elg (50 Free), Kaylyn Siefkas (200 IM), Nicolle Mallinger (100 Fly), and Amanda Babicz (100 Free). Coach Bond is pleased with the progress made by the team and that he looks forward to resting the swimmers. He said, “I was happy for the guys that broke the pool records. That is something that they will not forget. We saw some good speed today from both teams and I am excited to see how well we do once we are tapered.”

The team now prepares for competition at the Midwest Invitational on February 16-17 at the University of Chicago. This meet will serve as a final tune-up for the national swimmers, while giving those without national cuts the opportunity to rest and go for them.