Taylor Winter and Hannah Gabriel swept the top two places in the 500-yard freestyle to pace the Lawrence University swim team on Friday’s opening day of the Midwest Conference Championships at Boldt Natatorium.
Winter, a freshman from Bayside, Wis., won her first MWC individual title by swimming to victory in the 500 freestyle in 5:10.75. Gabriel, a sophomore, was right on her heels and finished second in 5:10.96.
Led by Winter and Gabriel, the Lawrence women are in fourth place in the team standings after the first day with 123 points. Lake Forest leads with 299 points.
On the men’s side, the top finisher for the Vikings was the 200 freestyle relay team, which finished third. The team of Peter Brengel, Walker Brengel, Pat Vincent and Charlie Mann took third in 1:28.33.
Lawrence is in third place on the men’s side with 107 points. Grinnell leads the team standings with 300.5 points.
Preliminary action resumes Saturday morning, and the meet concludes on Sunday.