CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Feb. 19, 2023) – Loras College's women's swimming and diving team helped make history over the weekend as the Duhawks competed at the inaugural American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) championship meet.
The end-of-season A-R-C meet had been an invitational meet in the past, but swimming and diving recently became an officially sponsored conference sport to make this the first ever conference championship meet. Luther College claimed the championship with a total team score of 659.5 points.
Nebraska Wesleyan University placed second with 409 points ahead of Coe College, which placed third with 394 points inside their home venue, the Coe Natatorium. Simpson College was fourth with 218.5 ahead of Loras with 201.
As she has done multiple times this season, senior
Nina Schiro led the way for the Duhawks as she claimed two Second Team All-Conference honors while helping the 400-yard medley relay team earn a podium by placing third in the finals.
Schiro was second in the 100-yard backstroke on Friday and second in the 200-yard backstroke on Saturday, making her the only Duhawk, men or women, to earn Second Team All-Conference honors.
In the 100-yard backstroke preliminaries, Schiro clocked a 1:00.26, which was just a couple ticks off her career-best mark of 1:00.09. She came close again in the finals with a 1:00.44, placing her second to NWU's Elena Lazzaretto, who narrowly beat out Schiro with a 1:00.33.
Schiro was right around her career-best for the 200-yard backstroke as well, as she again came in as the runner-up to Lazzaretto with a 2:11.68 in the finals.
On top of her individual honors, Schiro was the lead leg for the 400-yard medley relay team. That team of Schiro, freshman
Emma Pajtash, sophomore
Molly Strohmeyer, and junior
Annie Quinn clocked a finals time of 4:21.82 to beat out the team from Coe by five seconds to earn Third Team All-Conference honors.
Full Loras all-conference list:
Nina Schiro
100 Back – 2
nd
400 Medley Relay – 3
rd
200 Back – 2
nd
Emma Pajtash
400 Medley Relay – 3
rd
Molly Strohmeyer
400 Medley Relay – 3
rd
Annie Quinn
400 Medley Relay – 3
rd
