January 8, 2017 By Chris Varney
Happy 2018!
Every winter, the men’s basketball team takes the center stage at Grinnell College. Its kind of like athletics at Kansas and Kentucky — there’s the men’s basketball team and some other sports too. While the Pioneer men are fun to watch with their up-tempo, three point shooting style and draw big crowds to Darby Gym, other sports like swimming tend to be overshadowed.
Its a shame that the Pioneer swimming program gets overlooked because Head Coach Erin Hurley has been winning consistently for years. The men’s swimming team has won 14 of the last 16 Midwest Conference swimming titles, including 12 in a row from 2002 through 2013. The women have been even more dominant — winning 17 of the last 18 conference titles. Only Lake Forest interrupted the Grinnell College domination in the sport in 2012.
So far this year, the Pioneers have been up and down in their few meets but Hurley says injuries have not helped her field a complete line-up for both men and women.
On the men’s side, exciting sophomore Houfu Yan from Hawaii is the best in the conference in four different events (100 back, 200 back, 100 fly, and 200 fly). Yan won three conference titles last year, two of them individual, and was named the MWC Newcomer of the Year. The 2017 defending Swimmer of the Year is Junior Will Lindell from Edina, MN and is first in the conference this year in the 100 and 200 breaststroke. The Pioneers best event this year is the 1000 freestyle with the top 4 times in the Midwest Conference — Kyle Dixon Anderson (Freshman, Princeton Junction, NJ), Joshua Cottle (Senior Tallahassee, FL), Marty Toney (Sophomore, Eugene, OR) and Paul Cover (Freshman, Columbia, MO).
The women are led by Senior Maria Venneri (Los Alamos, New Mexico), who has 12 conference titles on her resume was the Swimmer of the Year in 2016. Venneri specializes in the backstroke and holds school records in the 100 and 200 events but is strong in the medley too, ranking first in the 200 IM this year in the Midwest Conference. Senior Summer White (Brookeville, MD) has been a regional qualifier in diving two out of the last three years and is the defending diver of the year in the MWC.
The Pioneer women have some outstanding freshmen this year. McKynley Larson (Topeka, KS) challenging Venneri in the backstroke and has the best time so far this season in the 200 back. Margueritte Devine-Maraz (Seattle, WA) has been another strong first year and has a conference low time in the 200 butterfly and 400 individual medley.
Both swimming teams competed in Naples, FL on Saturday and will return to the Osgood Pool with the Grinnell Invitational on January 19. As always, Grinnell will host the MWC Championships February 16-18. Listen to my complete interview with Erin Hurley as she sums up the first half of the swimming season at myiowainfo.com.