GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Led by Alexandra Horman, Anna Moore and Kylene Slocum, Albion College nearly edged 20th-ranked Carthage College in a quadrangular meet hosted by Calvin College.
Albion finished the two-day meet with 870 points, 11 behind Carthage's total. Calvin was the winning team with 1107 ½ points.
Joined by Nicole McCann, the trio started the day with a first place swim in the 200-yard medley relay. Moore's 27.75 leadoff split put Albion in the lead, and Slocum added to the lead with a 31.02 split on the second led. McCann's final leg of 24.77 brought Albion home in 1:50.22 for a one second margin over Calvin.
The same team finished the meet with a second place swim in the 400 free relay (3:41.44).
Moore and Horman were joined by Camila Manrique and Katie Ferrero as the Britons finished second in the 800 free relay. Albion's time was 8:08.27.
Horman edged Moore by 27 hundredths of a second in the race for first place in the 100 butterfly. Horman trailed by a half second at the midpoint of the race, but she came home in 31.09 seconds to finish in 59.62. Mary Noble finished third for the Britons.
Horman later finished second in the 200 butterfly (2:16.51).
Moore cruised past the field in the 200 backstroke. Her winning time of 2:10.84 was five seconds better than the second place performer. Moore was even with Calvin's Emily Slenk after the first 50, but she found her gear over the final 150 with splits of 32.74, 33.62 and 33.75.
Slocum won the breaststroke events with time of 1:07.70 in the 100 and 2:31.83 in the 200. Slocum trailed midway through the 200 race, but her 38.56 split over the final 50 sent her past Shae Taylor of Carthage.
While the Britons big three garnered the bulk of the attention, depth certainly helped the team score.
"Everybody else stepped up to make the team competitive," Head Coach Jake Taber. "The women are believing and getting better every week. It's exciting to see where this team is compared to a couple of years ago."
McCann added second place points in the 100 back (1:02.76).
Albion also picked up third place finishes from Sarah Kilbride in the 400 individual medley (4:54.49) and Manrique in the 200 free (2:02.32).
In diving, Marisa DeCamp and Lauren Young were second and third, respectively, in the 3-meter competition.
Albion returns to dual meet competition against a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association rival next Saturday when it hosts Kalamazoo College for a 1 o'clock event inside the Dean Aquatic Center.
