Western Illinois Falls to University of Illinois, Chicago

The Western Illinois swimming and diving teams were defeated by UIC in team scoring on the women’s side, 150-82, and on the men’s side, 144-94, inside Brophy Hall Pool on Saturday afternoon.

Senior Amanda Smith led the Westerwinds in her last home meet for the purple and gold with a season-best time of 54.58 in the 100-yard freestyle and a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle (25.46). Junior Taylor Martin won the 50 freestyle with a time of 25.44.

In the 200-yard individual medley, senior Shannon Nelson had a season-best time of 2:14.93 for a second-place finish. Other top performances included second-place finishes for junior Laura Dinkelmann in the 200-yard butterfly (2:10.11) and freshman Alyssa Deffner in the 200-yard freestyle (1:59.47).

In diving events, senior Eric Campbell won both the 1-meter event (299.78) and the 3-meter event (296.93). Senior teammate Anthony Holzhauer finished second in both the 1-meter event (284.25) and 3-meter event (273.00). For the Westerwinds, sophomore Molly Carrignan took second in both the 1-meter event (186.15) and the 3-meter event (194.03).

In swimming events for the Leathernecks, senior Gregory Thede had a season-best time of 2:15.33 to win the 200-yard breaststroke. Sophomore Phil Kurz finished second in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:00.84.

Freshman Brandon Wilkinson had two third-place finishes in the 200 freestyle (1:48.37) and in the 100 freestyle (49.49).

Up next for the Westerwinds and Leathernecks is The Summit League Swimming and Diving Championships on February 19-21 in Rochester, Mich., hosted by Oakland University.

Postmeet Quotes
Head coach Sean Raffile
On today’s performance:
“I was impressed with our (women’s) 400-yard medley relay again as they recorded a time of 4:02.44. We had some positive performances from Gregory Thede and Shannon Nelson in the 200 breaststroke. I was really happy with Lauren Trondle’s 200 butterfly as she tied her personal-best time. Amanda Smith, our senior co-captain, was really strong in the 100 freestyle, and that is with only a little rest between yesterday’s meet and today’s meet. Zack Johnson also had a great 200 individual medley and a very solid 500 freestyle.”

On this year’s senior class
“They have a lot of enthusiasm and they are caring people. They also provide guidance to the underclassmen and today they led by example in the pool.”

On things to work on before the conference meet
“Gaining confidence through pace work, practice and doing the little things the right way with the three weeks we have to practice for the championships are important. We need to worry about racing and not the time we are performing at. It is a hard thing to grasp because it is all about having your best time at the end of the season, but sometimes when you think about the time too much you do not have your best performance. However, when you do not over think about the time and just perform, that is usually when you have your best time.”