Both the men’s and women’s swim teams were narrowly defeated by the University of the Incarante Word last Saturday, Nov. 7.
The men’s team lost 118-101 and the women’s team was defeated 115.5-94.5.
The UIW meet marked the Tigers’ third meet of the season and their first defeat after they beat Centenary College on Oct. 11, and University of Texas-Permian Basin on Oct. 31.
Even though the Tigers did not come away with the victory, they still performed strongly with 11 combined relay and individual wins.
“We lined up and we had some pretty good races. We had a lot of our kids step up and swim their best times of the season to date and some exceptional swims. Some (swimmers) won a couple of races and as a coaching staff we were pleased,” said head coach John Ryan.
On the ladies team, two Tigers with individual wins were seniors Lydia Jones, Sarah Miller, Kelly Holton and first year Lindsay Hagmann.
Jones won the 100 backstroke (1:01.70) and Hagmann won the 100 freestyle (55.02). Jones and Hagmann also won the 400 freestyle relay with first years Bethany Rysak and Lauren Cuda. Miller captured the 500 freestyle win (5:28.82) and Holton was victorious in the 100 breaststroke (1:11.17).
For the men’s team, senior Stephen Culberson, juniors Andrew Thiesse, Nikita Chrikov and sophomore Isaac Johnson nabbed individual wins along with a relay win for the men’s team.
Culberson won the 100 freestyle (47.96), Thiesse was the 500 style champion (4:50.84) and Johnson came away with the 100 backstroke win (57.07). Culberson, Thiesse, Johnson and first year Spencer Adickes won the 400 freestyle relay. Chirkov also recorded an individual win for the Tigers with his victory in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.04).
“This year’s team has really shown a positive attitude,” said junior swimmer Becca Bond. “It’s nice to see my teammates cheering and wishing eachother goodluck even when they are competing against each other. The swimmers this year are really focused not only on their individual successes, but the team success, too.”
The Tigers have this weekend off this weekend and then return to the water on Nov. 21 and 22 at home to face Claremont-McKenna College (Calif.).
“The idea is that if we are going be as good as we know we can be, our team has to start going up against competition that really pushes us to put together some high level swims. We have all set challenging goals for ourselves and for our team performance, so the meet should be fun,” Culberson said.
