Last weekend, the Lawrence University Vikings swim and dive team travelled to Oshkosh to compete in a dual meet. Both the men’s and women’s teams dominated the meet.
The women’s team won 12 events, giving them a 165-62 victory over Oshkosh. Sophomore Erin Lengel won two events for the Vikings. Her first win was in the 200-yard freestyle for a 2:02.25 time. Her second win was in the 100 backstroke for a 1:01.61 time. This was a personal record time for Lengel, and she only hopes to continue the trend of improvement as they continue to creep closer to their conference meet.
Joining her with two first-place finishes of her own, senior Lizzy Garcia won the 50 freestyle with a 26.43 time and the 100 freestyle with a 57.66 time. Garcia also swam on a winning relay team. With this outstanding performance, Garcia was named “Viking of the Week” by Lawrence’s athletics department.
Junior Elise Riggle took first in the 1,000 freestyle in 11:54.00. First-year, Mae Grahs also picked up a first-place finish in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:40.02. Another first-year swimmer, Mizuki Ohama took first place in the 100 butterfly, and senior Emmi Zheng swam for the win in the 100 breaststroke.
The women’s team banded together to sweep all of the relay events as well. Their winning time for the 200 medley relay was 1:55.04. The 200 freestyle relay was won with a 1:46.26 time.
Separate from swimming races, Lawrence’s own first-year Maddy Smith swept all of the diving events. She took first on the 1-meter board, scoring 224.60, and also took first on the 3-meter board with a score of 226.30.
Lawrence women’s swim team looked fierce and unbeatable this past weekend. They go into second week of winter term with some hard work-outs ahead of them. They are determined to swim their way to more personal records and maybe even some new school records.
The men’s swim team also swam away with a victory. The Viking men just squeezed a win over UW-Oshkosh with a 98-96 final score.
Senior Max Stahl, also named “Viking of the Week” by the Athletics department, led the team with a couple wins. Stahl won the 200 individual medley with a 2:14.90 time and followed that with a first-place finish in 58.96 seconds in the 100 backstroke. With his performance in this meet, Stahl was named Midwest Conference Swimmer of the Week.
Stahl was joined by teammates junior Tom Goldberg, sophomore Anton Huchinson, and junior Liam Wulfman to win the 200 medley relay with a 1:42.54 time. Hutchinson added to the team points with a win of his own in the 200 freestyle. The winning didn’t stop there, as Wulfman also came away with a first-place finish in the 100 butterfly. Goldberg joined the long list of first-place finishers with his own win in the 100 breaststroke.
The swim and dive team have three more meets before they head to their conference championship meet. The next month will be filled with a lot of hard work and determination. They plan to ride the high of the big sweep, but refuse to let up on any of their training. They have the conference championship meet in mind and they plan on taking as many events as possible.
