Three seniors combined to win five events as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men’s swimming & diving team suffered a close loss to Wright State, 168.5-131-5, Saturday afternoon at the Klotsche Natatorium.
“We took another step forward today with what we’re trying to do as a team and as a program for the year,” Milwaukee head coach Kyle Clements said. “We’re starting to see some results and some areas that we need to improve in. We need to start working on some of the finer details in the coming weeks. We’re excited with what we did today, but we know there is far more work to be done. So, we’re excited to get back in the pool tomorrow morning and we’re excited to go up against UIC next week.”
UWM started the day off strong with the 1000 freestyle. Senior Kenny Stelpflug won the event in 9:48.61 to just edge out teammates Nic Halverson (9:49.60) and Tim Halverson (9:49.65) in a very close distance race.
Senior captain Mike Lucchesi also won a pair of events on the day for Milwaukee. Lucchesi first took first in the 100 free with a strong time of 46.97. He also claimed the top spot in the 100 butterfly at 50.77, nearly a full second ahead of the next finisher and a new season best.
In diving, senior K.J. Heger continued his assault on the record books by nearly breaking his own school record on the three-meter board. Heger posted an outstanding score of 376.50 to easily take the top spot, just missing his own school record by a mere two points. Andy LaFleur was second at 301.80. Heger also was first in the one-meter competition with a score of 347.40. Junior Andres Villa was second at 286.79.
Nick Menninga also claimed a win for the Panthers Friday. The sophomore from Madison, Wis. won a great race in the 50 free in 21.43, a new season best. That time also just beat out Lucchesi, who was second at 21.53.
Freshman Kyle Gerum came close to his the first collegiate win of his career. In the 200 backstroke, the newcomer touched the wall at 2:00.05 to just take second overall.
N. Halverson had two more second-place finishes on the day. The junior was runner-up in the 500 free in 4:44.69 and also came in second in the 200 IM at 1:59.40.
Both Panther relays also took second on the day, with the 200 free relay clocking in at 1:25.76 – a mere 15-hundreths of a second shy of the top spot – and the 400 medley relay touching out at 3:33.00.
“We’re starting to see the men’s team come around a little bit,” Clements said. “We starting to get a little bit sharper and go a little bit deeper in races. Our seniors are putting up some great times right now and our younger guys aren’t far behind, it’s just going to take some time to get there, but I like where we’re at right now.”
Milwaukee continues its three-meet home stand next week when UIC comes to campus Saturday for a noon meet at the Klotsche Natatorium.
Freshmen Natalie O’Connell and Alena Bodnaruk each won a pair of events as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women’s swimming and diving team posted an impressive 203-94 win over Wright State Friday evening from the Klotsche Natatorium.
UWM won 14 of the 16 events on the day, including yet another sweep by Rachel Margis in both diving events.
“We took another step forward today with what we’re trying to do as a team and as a program for the year,” Milwaukee head coach Kyle Clements said. “We’re starting to see some results and some areas that we need to improve in. We need to start working on some of the finer details in the coming weeks. We’re excited with what we did today, but we know there is far more work to be done. So, we’re excited to get back in the pool tomorrow morning and we’re excited to go up against UIC next week.”
O’Connell had one of her best days as a Panther in her young career, collecting not just one, but the first two wins of her collegiate career. The Chicago native first picked up in win in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:12.10, just edging out teammate Maggie Burns for the top spot. Later, O’Connell claimed a convincing win in the 200 breast in 2:24.70, nearly five seconds ahead of teammate Natalie Johnson for first.
“The women did great today,” Milwaukee head coach Kyle Clements said. “Natalie O’Connell won two events today and the time she dropped in the 200 breaststroke was a great swim for her. Our freshmen are starting to show what they can do, but we still rely on our seniors and they scored a lot of points for us today.
“We’re really starting to show off our depth. We didn’t realize we would be quite this deep at this point in the season, but we knew we had a great team and so we can swim a lot of different events on any given day.”
Bodnaruk – another freshman – also won a pair of events on the day. In the 200 freestyle, the newcomer just beat out three other Panthers to take the top spot at 1:55.35, with Sami Stelpflug, Anna Yontz and Emily Dean all right behind. Bodnaruk also touched the wall first in the 200 IM in 2:10.75, over a full second ahead of second place.
Margis was the third Panther to win two events on the day. One week after being named league diver of the week, Margis continued to post big numbers. In the three-meter competition, she cruised to an easy win with a score of 295.50, nearly 70 points ahead of the next finisher. If that wasn’t enough, Margis then flirted with the school one-meter record with a winning score of 287.32, just over 10 points shy of the top mark in program history.
Freshman Maddy Nelson also just missed a pair of records on the day. In the 100 backstroke, Nelson clocked in with an impressive time of 57.73 for first place. That time is just shy of both a Milwaukee freshman record and a Klotsche pool record and it marks the fourth-straight time the freshman has won the event to start her collegiate career.
Yontz claimed an impressive win on the day, touching out Wright State’s top sprinter in the 100 free in 53.15, just over one-tenth of a second ahead of second place in one of the closest races of the day.
Sami Stelpflug posted a sizable win for UWM in the 500 free. Stelpflug touched the wall first at 5:12.13 for the first win in her collegiate career, over 12 seconds ahead of teammate Burns in a strong showing.
Emily Kinnaird stood atop the podium in the 200 backstroke after a time of 2:08.80 was good enough to just edge out the Raiders’ top swimmer by half a second.
Other winners on the day for Milwaukee include Natalie Johnson in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.69), Mandie Siehs in the 50 free (24.31), and both the 200 free relay (1:35.77) and 400 medley relay (3:57.15).
Milwaukee continues its three-meet home stand next week when UIC comes to campus Saturday for a noon meet at the Klotsche Natatorium.
