Closing Out The MIAC In Team Style

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (2/17/18)---Ciara White, Amy Warren and Cassi Bohnsack provided the highlights for Concordia on the final day of the MIAC Championship Meet. The trio helped the Cobbers hold on to their ninth-place finish.

Concordia finished the three-day event with 117 team points which was 41 points ahead of 10th-place St. Mary's and 50 behind eighth-place Hamline.

"I am very pleased at how we finished off the meet," head coach Gary Fisher said. "We competed very well in all three days and we came away with a 100-percent rate of season-best times. Throw in the two school records posted by Amy (Amy Warren) and the show of team unity by Allison (Allison Marcus) and I am excited about the future of the program."     

White recorded the second best finish by a Cobber athlete at the meet as she swam to a 13th-place spot in the 200-yard breaststroke. She clocked a season-best time of 2:29.06 in the finals which beat her prelim time by over three seconds.

The 13th-place finish was White's second Top 15 place of the meet. She also captured the No.14 spot in the 100-yard breaststroke.          

Warren, who broke a pair of her own school records at the meet, closed out her first-ever MIAC Championship Meet by posting a 16th-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke – just behind White. Warren recorded her fastest time of the year in even in the prelims when she touched the wall in 2:32.46.

Warren came away with the top finish at the meet for the Cobbers. She was 12th in the 400-yard individual medley on Friday. Warren broke the school record in that event as well as the 200-yard individual medley on Thursday.

Bohnsack rekindled the diving tradition at Concordia by placing 15th in the 1-meter event on Saturday. Bohnsack recorded a personal best point total in the event. She completed the 1-meter event with 269.55 points which was only 12 points shy of a spot in the Top 12.

The lone relay of the final session was one last chance for Concordia's lone senior Ann Marie O'Connell to swim competitively. In a true show of great team chemistry freshman Allison Marcus gave up her spot on the 400-yard freestyle relay team so O'Connell could swim the anchor leg on the team and finish out her career in the pool.

O'Connell, Anna Backes, Lydia Larson and Warren finished off the meet of 100-percent season bests by clocking a 3:50.95. That was good for a ninth-place finish.

DID I HEAR A NINER?: The ninth-place team finish marks the fourth time in the past six years that the Cobbers have placed ninth at the meet.      

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS:
1. University of Saint Thomas - 867
2. Gustavus Adolphus - 657
3. Saint Olaf College - 492
4. Carleton College - 360.5
5. Saint Catherine University - 356
6. College of Saint Benedict - 342.5
7. Macalester College - 209
8. Hamline University - 167
9. Concordia - 117
10. Saint Mary's University - 76
11. Augsburg College- 69