St. Paul native Garr Punnett Named Most Valuable Player for Lake Forest College Men's Swimming and Diving

The sophomore won three events at the Midwest Conference Championships last month.

LAKE FOREST, IL (03/30/2012)(readMedia)-- The Lake Forest College Athletic Department held its annual Winter Sports Awards Ceremony on Sunday, March 25, at the First Presbyterian Church in Lake Forest. Among the many awards given out were plaques for each sport's Most Valuable and Most Improved Performers.

Junior Becky Shaak (Vienna, Va./James Madison) and sophomore Garr Punnett (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) were the Forester swimming & diving team's Most Valuable Performers while sophomore Loren Dutca (Chicago, Ill./Niles North) and freshman Mitchell Reiner (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett) were named the team's Most Improved Performers. Shaak earned the award for the third time in as many seasons. She helped lead Lake Forest to a Midwest Conference title by winning all three of her individual events and swimming on four victorious relay teams at the conference championship meet to earn her second career MWC Women's Swimmer of the Meet award. She also went on to earn All-American honors in the 400-IM. Punnett also prevailed in each of his three individual events at the conference meet, making him the first Forester male to accomplish the feat in a decade. Dutca was the MWC champion in the 1650-freestyle, placed second and third in her other events, and competed on three winning relay teams. Reiner finished second in the league in the men's 1650-freestyle and fourth in the 500-freestyle.

It was a successful winter for the Lake Forest College Athletic Department. In addition to recording a fourth straight sweep of the men's, women's, and combined team titles in the U.S. Handball Collegiate National Championships, the Forester women's swimming & diving team captured its first Midwest Conference championship since 1998 and the men's basketball team finished atop the standings to claim its first league title since 2000. The men's swimming & diving team was the conference's runner-up, the women's basketball and hockey teams reached the semifinals in their respective conference tournaments, and the men's hockey team advanced to the quarterfinals of the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association's playoffs.