St. Paul native Garr Punnett named Midwest Conference Men's Performer of the Week

The junior swimmer from Lake Forest College posted four victories to help the Forester men defeat Carthage for the first time since 2001.

LAKE FOREST, IL (11/07/2012)(readMedia)-- Lake Forest College swimmers Garr Punnett (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) and Becky Shaak (Vienna, Va./James Madison) were named Midwest Conference Men's and Women's Performers of the Week, respectively, on Tuesday for their performance in a dual meet at Carthage College last Saturday.

Punnett, a junior, posted four victories to help the Forester men defeat the Red Men (135-127) for the first time since 2001. He started the meet by leading off on the victorious 200-medley relay team, which posted the fastest time (1:38.38) in the conference and 24th-best in the nation so far this season. He then won the 100-backstroke in 53.66 seconds and the 200-backstroke in 1:57.72. Both times rank among the top 20 in the country this year. Lake Forest won the final event, the 400-freestyle relay, by more than four seconds to secure the victory and the time ranks 11th in the nation.

Shaak also swam a leg on both relay teams and the Foresters 200-medley relay time of 1:56.95 and 400-freestyle relay time of 3:52.47 are the best in the conference so far this year. Shaak also posted the league's top times while finishing second in the 200-freestyle (2:01.57) and winning the 200-breaststroke (2:30.92). Her time in the breaststroke also ranks 27th in the nation.

MWC Performers of the Week are selected by the league's sports information director. Punnett also earned the award once as a freshman and this is the sixth such honor for Shaak in her career.