Thursday, December 01, 2011

Flavia Segatto (Pembroke Pines, Fla./Charleow Flanigan H.S.) obliterated Valparaiso’s 1650 freestyle record on her way to a second place finish in the event on Thursday evening during the opening night of competition at the Calvin Winter Invitational held at the Venema Aquatic Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.  She also opened the night setting a new school mark in the 200 freestyle as the leadoff leg of the 800 freestyle relay.

Segatto posted a time of 17:24.74 to finish second in the field of 37 competitors and in the process posted a new Valparaiso record time in the event by more than 25 seconds.  Grace Arnold set the previous mark of 17:50.91 back in 2009.  The freshman’s time was more than a minute faster than her previous best this season as well.

Andrea Bretl (Wauwatosa, Wis./West H.S.) also scored in the mile for the Brown and Gold with a time of 18:33.11, finishing 15^th overall.  Her career best is the eighth best time in school history.  Freshman Alex Caruthers (Hilliard, Ohio/Hilliard H.S.) also finished in the top-20 on the night, posting a season’s best mark of 19:00.15.

The Crusaders opened the meet with a 10^th place showing in the 800 freestyle relay.  The team of Segatto, Caruthers, Bretl, and Ali Taubert (Bloomington, Ill./University H.S.) touched the wall in 8:03.54, 10^th best in school history.  Segatto led off the relay with a time of 1:54.89, a new school mark in the event by 0.08 seconds.  Julie Durkin had held the school record with a time of 1:54.97 back in 1999.

As a team Valpo sits in seventh place through day one of the three day competition with 35 points. The Crusaders trail fifth place Kalamazoo and Northern Michigan by just 16 points and are only 31 points out of second.  Grand Valley State leads the way through two events with 122 points.

Valparaiso will return to the water on Friday morning for day two of competition.  Eight more events are on the schedule with preliminary heats beginning at 9 a.m. CST and finals commencing at 5 p.m. CST.