Midwest Conference Championships

GRINNELL, Iowa, February 16. GRINNELL completed its eighth consecutive sweep of the Midwest Conference Swimming and Diving Championships after hosting and winning the 2009 version. The three-day event saw the women reach an unprecedented 11 straight victories while the men raised their tally to eight. The Pioneer men now own an MWC-best 32 overall titles, while the women also sit atop the conference with 20 championship trophies.

The Pioneers also swept the diving awards as Nick Smith (far left) was named the 2009 Men's Diver of the Year and his counterpart, Kelly Bruce (middle left), was named the 2009 Women's Diver of the Year. Lawrence, who finished second in the women's division and third in the men's, took home both of the swimming awards. Hayley Vatch (middle right) was named the 2009 Women's Swimmer of the Year after breaking one overall conference record and three MWC Championships records, while Peter Brengel (far right) set one MWC Championships record en route to winning the 2009 Men's Swimmer of the Year award.

Rounding out the awards are Grinnell's Erin Hurley (left) and Carroll's Joanne Brandtjen (right), who were named the 2009 Men's and Women's Coach of the Year, respectively.

Three more records fell on Sunday as Vatch's time in the 1,650-yard freestyle was a MWC Championship-best (17:45.10). Grinnell's Cyrus Mistry accomplished the same feat in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:07.05 while fellow Pioneer Valerie Stimac put her mark on the 100-yard freestyle. Her time of 52.34 is an MWC all-time record.

There were a number of repeat winners on the final day of the 2009 Championships. A pair of freshmen in Monmouth's Andrew Wright and Carroll's Danielle Grzywa each took home a second gold medal in their first Championships as they won the 1,650-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke, respectively. Brengel added to his total by touching the wall first in both the 200-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle. The talented freshman finished with three golds overall.

The three first-time winners for the final day went to Krysta Sparks (200 breast) of Monmouth and another pair of Grinnell Pioneers, Nate Wittnam (200 fly) and Morgan Horton (200 fly).

Special thanks to Midwest Conference for contributing this report.

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