Whitney Petersen posted a pair of fifth-place finishes to help Colorado College finish fifth out of eight teams at the 12th Annual CC Classic at Schlessman Natatorium.

“We were in a position tonight where the team was exhausted and could have just gone through the motions in today's finals session,” said head coach Anne Goodman James. “Instead, they truly stepped up to some phenomenal performances. Somehow, this turned out to be our best session of the weekend.”

Petersen turned in a time of personal-best time 2:05.72 in the 200-yard freestyle and then paced three Tigers in the finals of the 200 backstroke, touching the wall in 2:22.44. Andrea Tukan finished seventh in a time of 2:30.71, while Leore Geller was eighth in 2:35.64.

Karen Rasmussen's time of 59.91 was good for eighth place in the 100 free, while Carrie Markel won the consolation final in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:17.02, which was just .15 seconds ahead of Rasmussen, who took 10th.

Katie Burns, Jean Fryefield, Anya Arndt and Markel combined for a fifth-place finish in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:49.80.

“Julia Rubinstein swam a great leadoff leg on the B sprint relay, making her a solid candidate for the A relay at the conference championships,” Goodman James said. “Other big drops came from bold swims by Whitney Petersen and Lizzy Weirich in the women's 200 free.” 

Mesa State College took first place with 833 points, followed by the University of Colorado club team (551), Colorado School of Mines (388), Colorado State University (377.5), Colorado College (303), Cal State East Bay (239), Hendrix College (171) and the Metro State club team (91.5).

“I was proud of how gutsy our team was, and how they stuck to their race plans,” Goodman James said. “We are glad to have three and a half weeks before our championship meet, and plan to use that time to taper and fine tune.”

CC is idle until Feb. 17 when the Tigers travel to Louisville, Ky., for the 2010 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships.