The swim team won both of the meets they competed in the past two weekends.
At the first, an Oct. 16 relay meet at Malone University, the Chargers won every single event and finished with a score of 190. Eight teams competed and the second and third place finishers earned scores of 90 and 66 respectively.
The Chargers finished their Oct. 23 home meet with a score of 211 against Ohio Northern’s 63 as well as a score of 165 to Hope College’s 128.
Almost every team in the conference swam at the Oct. 16 relay meet which made the clean sweep particularly impressive, according to coach Kurt Kirner.
“We’re a very strong team in the conference,” Kirner said. “We have about six kids out with injury or illness and we were still able to put together 10 relays that were able to beat the other teams. It shows their depth and shows resilience.”
Some events at the relay meet were unconventional and are not typically raced in most meets, according to Junior Sydney Slepian. Some of these were the 3×100 yard relays in butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke, as well as a 3×500 yard freestyle relay.
“Having won all of them really shows how much depth we have, not just in certain events but really in all of our events and all of our strokes,” Junior Sydney Slepian said.
Sophomore Phoebe Johnston-Hoffman said she was excited about the clean sweep, but she also wants to avoid taking the win for granted.
“Our team depth is really going to have to come in February this year, so we’re really trying not to become complacent,” Johnston-Hoffman said. “We really want to push ourselves in practice, in and out of the pool, just to make sure that we can do the best we can.”
The Chargers also won the Oct. 23 home meet. This was the first time the team competed at home in over a year, according to junior Leah Tunney, who was named GMAC athlete of the week after her performance at the Malone relay meet.
“It was good competition,” Tunney said. “They pushed us and we all just swam really well.”
Notable performances include freshman Megan Clifford’s 200 yard butterfly in which she broke the pool record with a time of 2:08.83.
“That was really exciting. One of my goals going into that meet was to try and get it, but I was honestly surprised when I did,” Clifford said. “It was so fun to see all the girls standing at the end of my lane cheering for me.”
The Chargers will compete at home this Saturday, Oct. 30 against Albion College and Wabash College.
