Wheaton, Ill. -- The 43rd annual Wheaton Invitational concluded on Saturday night after three days of swimming and diving events inside Lederhouse Natatorium. Both Thunder squads finished third in the eight-team final standings in their last competition of the calendar year. The Wheaton women's team concluded the weekend with a tally of 704 points, close behind second-place Grove City College on 718 and well ahead of Augustana in fourth place. The Pointers of UW-Stevens Point ultimately claimed victory on the women's side after overhauling both the Thunder and the Wolverines today to end the meet with an impressive 752 points. The Wheaton women were again led by Tess Boyer, Katie Yonan, and Kara Grace Hess this evening, as all three swimmers logged multiple event victories and the former set a new meet record in the process.

This evening's finals program began in the best possible fashion for the invitational hosts, as Savannah Jeffery, Louise Adams, Hess, and Yonan joined forces to claim victory in the women's 200 yard medley relay. Yonan's split of 23.32 on the anchor leg helped seal the win for her quartet, touching the wall .35 second before her Grove City counterpart to put Wheaton on top with a combined time of 1:49.23.

Boyer then started the individual events with a bang, posting a new meet-record time in the women's 400 yard IM. Her noteworthy mark of 4:26.78 eclipsed the previous standard set by Katie Deysher in 2015 by .25 second, was a whopping 13 seconds faster than the runner-up's mark in tonight's race, and is currently the tenth-fastest time in the event in all of Division III, putting Boyer in a strong position to qualify for next spring's NCAA Championships. 

Katie Yonan (pictured right) continued her excellent showings in the freestyle events by grabbing a solo victory in the 200 free tonight thanks to her mark of 1:54.04, winning the race by 1.9 seconds. 

Hess (pictured below) was Wheaton's third A final winner on Saturday, capturing first place in the 100 yard butterfly by .02 second in a photo finish. The sophomore beat out her Olivet Nazarene challenger by the slimmest of margins with a time of 59.03, as the two swimmers were the only ones to finish the   event with a sub-minute mark. Hess later won the B final of her 50 yard free, as well, courtesy of a 25.60 time, again topping the field by a narrow margin at just .05 second.

Olivia Wiebe swam to a third-place finish in the 400 yard IM, while Erin Davis was runner-up in the women's 200 yard breaststroke via a 2:30.31 mark. Scottie McKeaney secured third place in the 1650 yard freestyle on Saturday, posting a time of 18:45.85 to complete the lengthy race 12.5 seconds quicker than the UWSP swimmer in fourth.

The Thunder women ended the night and the invitational on a high note with another relay win, as Hess, McKeaney, Boyer, and Yonan teamed up to place first in the 400 yard freestyle relay. The Wheaton group won the event convincingly with a total time of 3:34.35 to top the Stevens Point quartet behind them by more than three seconds.

With another Wheaton Invite now in the books, the Thunder swimming and diving teams will step away from competition for the holiday break and return to the pool on January 11th when Wheaton welcomes Hope College and Kalamazoo College to town for a tri-meet.