Over the weekend, the Lawrence swimming and diving teams traveled to Brown Deer to open their season at the All Wisconsin Showcase with 8 other colleges. This meant that both the men’s and women’s teams were competing against numerous NCAA division 1 players, but the Vikings held out with remarkable finishes. For the men, freshman Charlie Philips took 10th in the 500 freestyle in 5:14.24, and junior Max Stahl took 14th in the 200 backstroke in 2:12.05. Freshman Anton Hutchinson took 6th place in the 500 yard freestyle in 5:02.73, helping to give the Vikings an overall good score. The lady Vikings were paced by sophomore Elise Riggle as she took 11th place in the 500 freestyle in 5:39.61, as well as 20th in the 200 backstroke in 2:23.98. Senior Emei Thompson was right behind Riggle in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:48.79 to earn her 15th place. Other notable performances from the women’s team were the finishes by junior Emmi Zheng for 12th in the 200 breaststroke in 2:40.44, as well as freshman Erin Lengel with a time of 1:01.32 for 12th place in the 100 butterfly. In the 100 freestyle, senior Eryn Blagg took 16th in 57.81 seconds, and junior Lizzy Garcia took 21st in 58.54 seconds. Emei Thompson said of the opening meet, “I think going up against D1 swimmers is always intimidating, but it’s fun; because it gives us the opportunity to really push ourselves. This year’s team is looking strong, and this meet was a great one to showcase that talent. Our incoming freshmen have added a new depth to the team which is going to really help at conference. Hopefully the women’s team will be able to secure second place again, and the men will be able to move into the top three!” Come see the team go up against Ripon this Saturday and hopefully continue with the momentum from their successful opener.
