Calvin Girls’s Swimming Opens Season at Fifth Annual Be Better; Invite

Results

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Calvin University ladies’s swimming and diving opened the 2026-27 season with the fifth annual Be Better; Invitational at Canham Natatorium on the University of Michigan.

 

The occasion, in its fifth 12 months, honored the lifetime of former University of Michigan and Holland Christian High School swimmer Ian Kiskelley, who handed away in 2020. The meet is supposed to advertise the Be Better; Foundation, which was began by the Miskelley household, to advertise psychological well being.

 

The meet featured Calvin, Michigan and Hope College, was not scored formally and featured each conventional and non-traditional occasions.

 

The 200 Medley Relay was the primary occasion of the meet and the Calvin ‘A’ relay of Emma Merkel (Grandville, Mich./Grandville), Gracie Ganger (Tipp City, Ohio/Tippecanoe), Grace Schutter (Shelby Twp., Mich./Dwight D. Eisenhower) and Ella Andrews (Carmel, Ind./Heritage Christian took third place in a time of 1:50.3.

 

In the normal particular person occasions, Merkel and Zoe Poe (Bridgeville, Pa./South Fayette Twp.) every completed fourth of their swims. Merkel took fourth within the 100 Backstroke in a time of 58.19 and Poe completed the five hundred Freestyle in a time of 5:17.52. Grace Van De Burg (Hudsonville, Mich./Hudsonville) additionally took house a top-five end within the 500 Freestyle with a time of 5:27.28.

 

Ganger took fifth within the 100 Breaststroke, whereas Naomi Aldana (Villa Park, Ill./Homeschool) completed fifth within the 100 Butterfly.

 

Following conventional occasions, the groups competed in non-traditional occasions that included combined relays, 25 yard thriller shootouts and underwater with fins races earlier than ending with the 400 Freestyle Relay. In that occasion, the ‘A’ Calvin relay of Andrews, Maria Heeres (Holland, Mich./Holland Christian), Poe and Merkel completed fourth in a time of three:40.08.

 

NEXT UP: Calvin swimming and diving will return to competitors on Saturday, October 17, when it competes in a house triangular meet towards Grand Valley State University and Saginaw Valley State University at Venema Aquatic Center at 1:00 PM.