The WKU swimming and diving team opened the 2014-15 season on the right foot, taking a pair of wins over Delta State on Saturday in the Bill Powell Natatorium.
The Lady Toppers took a dominate 210-83 win over the Lady Statesmen while the Hilltoppers finished the day with a 169.5-128.5 victory.
“Before the meet we talked about having two goals for the day,” said WKU head coach Bruce Marchionda. “Number one—I wanted them to get up and race well. Our goal is to never lose a race in the last 5-10 meters, and I thought we did that fairly well today. It’s interesting because we have all these freshmen that we haven’t seen in a race situation before and for some of them it has been awhile since they have been up to race if they weren’t her this summer. So it was good to see them race.
“Our second goal was for them to be closer as a team—supporting one another. I thought they did a phenomenal job of that too. I was really pleased with that. It’s just a reality check—where are we right now? This is where we are, and I told them now it’s time to get better every day. So we had some great things happen today and some things we thought weren’t as good as they should be. Overall, I was pleased with how we got up and raced. We did enough to get a victory and kind of get things rolling here.”
The Hilltoppers and Lady Toppers took the top three spots in multiple events, including the men’s 1000 free, 200 free and 500 free and the women’s 50 free, 200 free, 100 breast, 200 fly, 100 fly and 200 IM as well as the women’s diving events.
In the 1000 free, Russ Bryant took the top spot at 9:35.36 followed by Aymeric Le Corno’s 9:39.08 and Daniel McGee’s 9:53.76. For the women’s 50 free, newcomer Logan Graumann stopped the clock in 23.52. Le Corno took a win in the 500 free at 4:37.55.
Michelle Craddock earned the fastest time in the 200 free with a time of 1:52.55 while Cody Reul took first in the men’s event at 1:42.62. In the women’s 100 breast, Claire Conlon entered a time of 1:03.76 while also winning the 200 breast in 2:20.58. Hannah Musser claimed the top spot in her first collegiate meet in the 200 fly at 2:04.74 and 100 fly at 56.23 while tallying the fastest time in the 200 IM at 2:07.73.
Nadine Laemmler and Seth Musser took first in their respective 100 back events at 56.35 and 50.48, respectively, as well as 200 back at 2:03.47 and 1:50.55, respectively. Fabian Schwingenschlogl continued to dominate the breast events, tabbing the fastest time in the 100 breast at 56.51 and 200 breast at 2:06.05.
Craddock added more first-place points in the 100 free after hitting the wall in 51.69 along with Sydney King in the 500 free with a time of 5:02.43. Tyler Groneck’s 50.02 in the 100 fly placed him in the top slot.
WKU took the fastest time in three of the day’s four relays, including both 200 medley relays and the women’s 200 free relay.
On the diving boards, freshman Savannah Neddo won both events for the Lady Toppers with a score of 253.5 on the three meter and 226.2 on the one meter. Alexandra Mata took second on the one meter after scoring 207.37 while returner Madison Rylee finished second on the three meter after an evaluation of 225.67. Zach Batus took second on both boards for the men with scores of 221.02 on the one meter and 181.44 on the three meter.
WKU returns to the pool on Saturday, Nov. 1 with a trip to IUPUI. The following weekend, the team will split, as the men go to Purdue on Nov. 7 while the women head to Nashville for a tri-meet against Tulane and Vanderbilt on Nov. 8.
