Now half way through the 2014-15 season, the St. Catherine University swimming and diving team had its best showing of the year at the St. Cloud State University Mid-Season Invite – which featured some of the top Division II and III programs in the region – with 65 season-best perofrmances and 15 career-bests. Though each member of squad contributed geratly, junior Haley French Krahn (Rochester, Minn./Mayo) was spectacular in her home pool and has therefore been named the Wildcat Athlete of the Week.Â
To open the meet Friday evening, French Krahn has the top distance swim with an 18th-place finish in the 1650 Freestyle event. In her first swim in the event this season, French Krahn clocked in at 18:40.87 which wasn't far off her school-record time and was less than 15 seconds from her eighth-place time a year ago at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championships.Â
Saturday, French Krahn continued to lead the Wildcats with a career-best swim in the 400 IM. Her time of 4:53.72 was the best from a Wildcat in the prelims to earn a spot in the finals. In the evening session, she bettered that time finishing the event in 4:52.42 to finish 21st overall. Her prelim swim was a season-best time by over 30 seconds and was a career-best by nine seconds. The junior also swam the lead-off leg of the 800 Freestyle Relay that clocked in at 8:12.38, which matched the squad's time from the MIAC meet in February.
On the final day of competition Sunday, French Krahn showed fatigue wasn't a factor as she qualified for the finals in the 200 Breaststroke with a season-best time of 2:35.54 before dropping five seconds in the evening's race to place 19th with a time of 2:30.53 – just .09 seconds off her career-best time in the event. She also recorded a season-best time of 5:30.51 in the 500 Freestyle and helped the Wildcats' top 400 Freestyle Relay team finish with a season-best time of 3:45.51.Â
French Krahn and the rest of the Wildcats will take several weeks off of competition before returning to action on their winter training trip Jan. 6-14 in Florida. Â
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