Simpson’s Swimming and Diving teams put a cap on their season this past weekend at the Liberal Arts Championships at Principia College in Elsah, Ill.

The Storm men were led by freshman Danny Turner as he racked up 23 points to earn the men an eighth-place finish.

Leading the pack for the women was sophomore Alyssa Harris. Harris earned a total of 54 points, which placed the team in 10th.

In the prelims of the 200-yard breaststroke, Turner put up a time of 2 minutes, 9.07 seconds, almost breaking his second record of the year. He missed the previous time, which was set at 2:09.00. Turner went on to end the event in the finals with a 2:09:83, where he finished third.

Harris earned an eighth-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke with a final time of 2:21.73. She also helped out in the 400-yard freestyle relay with Caroline Oberg, Katie Cardoza and Madison DePover. They were able to finish off with their best time of the season at 4:01.90, which is six seconds faster than their previous best.

This team’s season started back in September of 2019. Halfway into February, the team is totaling about six months of work. 

“It’s a really big struggle. The midway point you start to get down on yourself, you just have to keep pushing for the entire season,” Harris said.

Finding time to relax during such a long season is a big part of making it through. 

“I took breaks when I needed it,” Turner said. “Coach [Tom Caccia] is very understanding and then the biggest thing for my season is over winter break. I took about two-and-a-half weeks off out of the pool to do a little exercise to let my body heal up.”

It may not have been the season that anyone on the team had hoped for, but they are working towards improvement. The men didn’t get a single meet win, mainly due to the fact they only have 2 males competing in events. 

The women tallied one meet win this season against Tabor back in November. 

“Kind of disappointed on how I ended the season, and didn’t do as well as I wanted to do,” Harris said. “For how small our team is, we did really well and got points for as little people that we have. I’m going to keep training and hopefully do well next season. I’m looking forward to it.”

Turner was also happy with how the team performed.

“It was great and everyone did really well, everyone was either cutting time and hitting personal bests,” Turner said. “Probably knowing that I was super close to breaking another record shows to me that there is more room for improvement and just because I didn’t get it now doesn’t mean I can’t get it next year.”

Among those who topped their personal bests was senior Austin Andes, who finished with a 51.90 in the 100-yard freestyle, ending his career on a high note.

The squad was proud of their efforts all season through the highs and lows.