In its final home meet of the season, the WKU swimming and diving team put forth a complete effort in wins over Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon.
The women’s team recorded a 199-92 win while the men’s squad tabbed a 183-115 victory in its last meet of the season. The women return to the pool next weekend at Marshall for its season finale while the divers go to Tennessee first weekend of February.
“We had some great things happen today,” WKU head coach Bruce Marchionda said. “What I liked most about the weekend was just the consistency from day one to day two. I loved that. I loved that we didn’t lose many races in the last 12 and a half and able to get our hand on the wall well today. That is just that competiveness, and they did a nice job of that.
“We are just excited about where we are right now. I feel like for the most part we are in a very good place right now. We want to use that as momentum, as we have three weeks here to put on the final preparation touches as we head into Conference USA.”
The team celebrated its 13 seniors, as six of them earned top individual finishes against the Bearcats. Ashley Forsyth won the 1000 free in 10:18.52 while Tj Bland took the top spot in the 100 breast in 57.05. In the women’s 100 breast, the seniors took over, as Claire Conlon (1:04.06), Whitney Spain (1:07.41) and Taylor Counter (1:07.43) went 1-2-3 in the event. Conlon also won the 200 breast in 2:18.89
The senior winners continued as Paige Drazga led the WKU tandem in the 50 free with a time of 23.68 and Susan Marquess notched the win in the 500 free at 4:59.08. Kennedy Higdon exhibitioned in the 200 IM, but recorded the fastest time at 2:09.88.
WKU opened the meet in dominant fashion, going 1-2 in both women and men’s 200 medley relay. The women’s crew of Nadine Laemmler, Conlon, Hannah Musser and Drazga finished in 1:42.93 while the men’s team of Alex Sajewski, Fabian Schwingenschlogl, John Smith and Russ Bryant came in at 1:32.88. The women’s 200 free medley then set a new pool standard in the final event with Marquess, Michelle Craddock, Logan Graumann and Drazga posting a new record of 1:33.76.
Laemmler lowered the pool record set by a Northwestern swimmer last season, as she won the 100 back in 55.28, beating the previous record of 55.30. Michelle Craddock then broke a pool record that WKU Athletic Hall of Fame member Brandi Carey set in 2001, as Craddock lowered Carey’s time of 51.09 to 50.82.
On the boards, Savannah Neddo set a school and pool record with a zone-qualifying score of 302.47. Neddo also won the three meter with 257.55 points. Zach Batus won both events as well, easily winning the one meter with 279 points while edging out the Bearcats on the three meter with a score of 267.82.
Bryant was a triple winner for the day, taking the wins in the 200 free (1:41.12), 50 free (21.14) and 100 free (46.26). H. Musser also tabbed multiple wins, tallying times of 2:03.45 in the 200 fly and 55.78 in the 100 fly. Schwingenschlogl notched a pair of victories with 51.33 in the 100 back and 1:51.10 in the 200 IM.
