(Brent Schwert)
Over winter break, the LU swimming and diving team headed down to Venice, Fla. for a seven-day training trip that included a successful meet in Sarasota against University of Chicago. While there, 31 athletes collectively swam a total of 1.9 million yards, equaling out to 1071 miles — roughly the distance from Appleton to Denver.
After returning from Florida, LUST was ready to get back in the water and compete. Saturday the team traveled down to Kenosha for a triangular between LU, Carthage and North Central. Despite losing to Carthage, Lawrence easily beat North Central and both men’s and women’s teams boasted season-best times. On the men’s side, Brett Cox, Kyle Griffin and Taylor Brengel swam season bests, while Jenni Hair and Meredith Claycomb both claimed best times in the women’s 200 individual medley. Hayley Vatch also impressed with wins in both the 1000 and 500 free.
Next up for the Vikes is Saturday’s home meet against UW-Whitewater. Though the women have already beaten the Warhawks twice in invitationals, they should prove much tougher in head-to-head competition.The fencing team had an impressive showing in their first meet at Northwestern in November. The combined women’s teams of foil, epee and saber beat seven of the 11 competing schools — which includes University of Chicago, University of Minnesota and UW-Madison — despite incomplete foil and epee squads. Men’s team epee, themselves one man short of a full squad, came out 8-3 to defeat teams from Northwestern, Michigan State, University of Indiana and Purdue. In men’s individual saber, sophomore Nils Shaede was undefeated except for one bout. The team hopes to continue their early success at their next meet at Notre Dame in late January.
