At its final meet before conference championships, the swim team showed up and showed out at an invitational meet hosted by out-of-conference University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
“It was a great meet to practice the prelims/finals format of G-MACs, and we had some wonderful swims from our team,” senior Sydney Slepian said. “It was a new meet to us and the farthest meet that any of us have ever done, but it also introduced a different energy to compete in a new pool with teams that we haven’t faced before.”
The Chargers finished third out of the four teams, but they only competed one day out of the two day meet. In one day, the team scored more points than the other three teams competing and won five of the nine women’s events.
The first win of the meet came from junior Caroline Holmes’ impressive performance in the 200 yard individual medley. She finished with a time of 2:09.39, six seconds faster than her time in the preliminary round. It was also a personal best time for the junior and the seventh fastest 200 yard I.M. in Charger history.
“It was a fun race,” Holmes said. “I just tried to keep it light and relaxed. I put on a tech suit during finals to just see what I could do with no rest after a pretty intense training block. I was totally surprised. It’s definitely an honor to be on the top 10 list. I am excited to keep competing in that event and to see how much more time I can drop in it.”
Sophomore Joanna Burnham followed Holmes, placing second with a time of 2:12.61.
The next Charger win was sophomore Elise Mason’s 500 yard freestyle which she swam in 5:03.95, about 22 seconds faster than her preliminary time and 24 seconds faster than the second place finisher in the final. This performance earned her recognition from the conference as G-MAC swimming and diving athlete of the week. Her time also qualifies as a NCAA B-cut time. Senior Amy Mills finished third in the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 5:32.11.
In the 200 yard breaststroke, Burnham earned first place with a time of 2:32.32. Freshman Rotem Andegeko finished fifth in the same event (2:37.88) and senior Hannah Douthitt followed in sixth (2:40.21).
Chargers saw a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 yard butterfly, with senior Madison Pyhel in first with a time of 2:12.76.
“It was a huge confidence boost getting first, especially going into our conference championship meet,” Pyhel said.
Seniors Sarah Clark (2:16.50) and Anika Fassett (2:20.32) followed Pyhel in second and third, respectively.
The team closed out the meet with a win in the 400 yard medley relay, swimming it in 4:02.54, six seconds ahead of the second place finisher. Holmes opened the relay with a 58.12 split in the backstroke portion, followed by Burnham swimming the breaststroke in a 1:10.86 split. Sophomore Megan Clifford swam the butterfly portion (58.45) and senior Marie Taylor anchored the relay with a 55.11 split in the freestyle portion, which was faster than her individual performance in the 100 yard freestyle earlier in the meet.
