Lawrence University’s men’s and women’s swim teams faced some stiff competition at the University of Chicago Invitational last weekend. After two days of events, the Lawrence women’s team took sixth place with 206.5 points and the men’s team took seventh place with 194 points. Head Coach Andrew Fleek was pleased with the performance of both the women and the men this past weekend.
Fleek commented, “We had some great performances on both sides at the Chicago Invitational where we were able to see some great competition from some of the best teams in the country.” He continued, “The team definitely improved a lot since our last competition, and we had many season- best performances.”
Both the men and women’s sides saw standout individual performances during the invitational. On the women’s side, Taylor Winter took third place in the 500 freestyle, as well as sixth place in the 600 freestyle and fifth in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Also for the women, Hannah Gabriel swam well in both the 500- and 200 freestyle, taking 10th place in the 500 and fifth place in the 200. On the men’s side, Peter Brengel took ninth place in the 100 and 200 backstroke, while Evan Flack took ninth place in the 200 freestyle.
Lawrence also had some excellent performances in relay competition. The women’s 400-yard freestyle relay team (Julia Heller, Chelsea Hameister, Winter and Gabriel) took ninth place after finishing the relay with a time of 3:55.40. The same group of women also took seventh place in the 800-yard freestyle relay after swimming for a time of 8:31.85. Lawrence’s men’s 200 yard medley relay team (Brengel, Cameron Gmehlin, Pat Vincent and Charlie Mann) took ninth place with a final time of 1:42.83. The same group also finished 10th in the men’s 400-yard medley relay after swimming for a final time of 3:53.30.
Although he noted that the team showed significant improvement this meet, Fleek said the team still had some technical aspects that could use further refinement before the next competition.
“For the rest of the season we will be focusing on sprinting and refining our technique on starts and turns,” said Fleek.