Last Thursday and Friday the Trinity Swimming and Diving team competed in their last home meets for the season. The diving team held the Trinity Diving Invitational on Thursday and Friday, while the swim team competed against Centenary College Friday evening.

The men’s and women’s swimming teams beat Centenary College last Friday. The men’s team won 150-89 and the women’s team won 172-60.

Junior Stephen Culberson won the men’s 200-yard freestyle (1:45.31) and the 100-yard butterfly (54.30). Sophomore Nikita Chirkov won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.16) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2.17.91). Sophomore Andrew Thiesse won the 200 backstroke (1:59.29) and the 400 individual medley (4:23.53).

“As a team I thought we did pretty well. We just came off of winter training, which is our hardest training cycle, so this meet every year is typically a little bit on the rougher side in terms of how we’re feeling. However, I thought that we were able to put all the pain and soreness behind us and put up some alright times. We have a meet this weekend and we’re looking to go faster because we’ve had a bit more rest,” said Culberson.

Senior Arthur Daigh placed first in the 100 -yard backstroke (56.45) and first years Issac Johnson and Conor Young also placed first in the 100-yard freestyle (49.27) and 500-yard freestyle (5:01.04) respectively.

The Tiger men’s relay team of Johnson, sophomores Tom Jones and Jon Hoffman and junior Adam Thomas won the 200 medley relay (1:39.33).

On the women’s team, senior Melanie Gustafson took first in three individual events: the 200-yard butterfly (2:13.73), the 500 freestyle (5:19.36) and the 400-yard individual medley (4:49.28). Junior Lydia Jones placed first in two events: the 200-yard freestyle (1:58.07) and the 200 backstroke (2:15.51).

Sophomore Kara Beauchamp won the 200 breaststroke (2:29.16), junior Kelly Holton won the 100 breaststroke (1:09.02), sophomore Samantha Michaelson won the 100 backstroke and senior Rachel Berude won the 100 freestyle (55.44).

The Tiger women’s relay team of Holton, Berude, sophomore Becca Bond and senior Megan O’Rell won the 200-yard medley relay (1:54.16).

The Tigers are competing tomorrow in the Northwest Invitational at Seattle, Washington.

The Trinity diving team had four divers who earned NCAA qualifying scores in a dual meet against the State University of New York-Fredonia last week.

On Thursday, sophomore All-American Ashley Heline won the 3-meter dive board and scored 510.95 on the high board, after eleven dives.

“Everyone performed really well at the meet. It was exciting to see the team excel at the new dives they just learned during winter training,” said Heline.

Senior All-American Katie Sheldon was runner-up with a score of 475.25. First year Mollie Patzke placed fifth with a score of 448.85 and senior Gabriella Caglieris placed sixth with a score of 402.10.

“Everyone performed great, considering we just got back from San Juan and they had to do all their new dives without the aid of me telling them when to come out”¦they got their list off the one we had planned for in San Juan. For New York, I thought they would be even with us, or maybe even slightly ahead, but it was the other way around. We were ahead of their development, so I was very happy about that,” said head diving coach Stan Randall.

Junior Galve Deleste placed fifth on the 1-meter board with a score of 324.65. Sophomore Philip Whalen placed sixth with a score of 277.85.

On Friday, Heline won the 1-meter board. On the low board, she scored 490.05 after a total of 11 dives. Sheldon was runner-up both days of the competition with a score of 452.95 in the 1-meter board competition. Patzke placed third with 443.45 and Caglieris placed fifth with 424.70. All four divers earned NCAA Division III qualifying scores.

“Individually, I was much happier with my 1-meter performance, opposed to my 3-meter, but it gives me a good idea of what to work on looking toward post-season. We just came back from our training camp, and during training camp we all put in a lot of work. This past week was the first time we were able to showcase our new dives,” Patzke said.

Sophomore Philip Whalen placed fifth on the men’s 3-meter board with a score of 306.25.

“Training camp is always hard work and I think we came out of it positively and had a good meet as a team overall. At this point, we are just polishing our dives to improve them so that we can go into conference as prepared as possible,” senior Sara Miller said.

The Tigers will compete in the SCAC Championships  from Wednesday, Feb. 12 to Saturday, Feb. 15 in Rockwall, Texas.