Women Compete at RMAC Championship Meet

Jessica Palacio
The Paw Print
The Grizzly swim squad competed in their final regulation meet of the season last week, traveling to Grand Junction, Colo. for the RMAC Championships. The meet spans over four days with a preliminary session being run in the morning. The top 16 swimmers in each event swam in the morning, being invited back for the evening’s finals session.
Going into this meet, the women’s squad had been undefeated in conference duals and came into the first night of the meet as a force to be reckoned with. With only 11 girls competing, where the average college team has 18+, the Grizzlies finish third as a team, up considerably from last year’s eighth place team finish.
This impressive top three finish can be attributed to the strength and depth that can be found on this year’s woman’s squad. With at least one Grizzly, more often two, making it into the top eight finishers of every event competed over the week, the points began to add up. Spectacular relay performances added much needed points in to the Grizzlies point total.
Action began on Wednesday night with the women’s 1000yard freestyle where freshman Alison Bischoff became the first Grizzly to ever swim a NCAA D II National B-Cut time. With a school record-breaking time of 10:30.54, Bischoff placed second overall, making another first for the Grizzlies as the first individual to place top three in the RMAC championship meet. Bischoff also had two more phenomenal individual swims over the weekend, placing third in the women’s 500 freestyle and first in the women’s 400yard individual medley. It was with her last individual event, the 400 individual medley, that Bischoff managed another NCAA D II Nation B-Cut time. She also managed to squeak into the 15th place nationwide, qualifying for NCAA DII Nationals.
Bischoff was only one of many Grizzlies to excel this weekend. Freshman Kelsie Baggs had the meet of her life with not one, but two RMAC Championship titles. Baggs only competed in two individual events, women’s 100 and 200yard backstroke, and championed both with ease, finishing well over a second past her fellow competitors. Baggs also swam NCAA D II National B-Cut Standards in both her individual, and helped lead the 200 and 400yard medley relays to top finish and to national B-Cuts.  In addition, Baggs received individual honors as the RMAC Freshman of the year for her individual achievements and team contributions over the season.
Both the Grizzly women’s medley relays placed second overall, falling just short of Grand Canyon University’s relays. Both the 200 and 400yard relays were kicked off by Baggs, along with fellow freshman Aspen Hann, junior Jennell Higgs and sophomore Maggie Morris, demolishing the previous school records. Even the Grizzlies “B” relay had impressive performances that would have succeeded last year’s team records in the event. The “B” relay of junior Jessica Palacio, sophomores Jordan Shomaker and April Cunningham, and Bischoff outswam several of the other schools “A” relays, but were only allowed to compete in the event as an exhibition, not for points.
To top off the great season Grizzlies Head Coach Dan France was honored as RMAC Women’s Swimming Head Coach of the year. Congratulations to all of the swimmers on a great season!