For most Division II athletic programs, opening up the season against a Division I opponent would be intimidating, but the Grand Valley State University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams took their meet against the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as an opportunity to find out where they stand an what they can improve on this season.

Although GVSU did not come away with victories on Saturday, with men falling by a score of 155-88 and the women losing 144-99, the Lakers did have some standout performances that will serve starting points for the season, said GVSU head coach Andy Boyce.

“The team is off to a great start,” he said. “We faced some stiff competition for sure going up against the Horizon League champs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but we posted some good times. We started out the meet with a win in the men’s medley relay with Raphael Santos, Erik Aakesson, Aaron Beebe and Milan Meado winning by nine-hundredths of a second … then going into the next race Carly Bush picked up a win in the [1,000 yard] freestyle with a time of 10:34:68.”

The Lakers saw a glimpse of how good they could be this season when sophomore Caitlyn Madsen turned in a personal best swim time of 2 minutes, 7.37 seconds in the 200-yard butterfly and the men secured a thrilling victory in the 200-medley relay.

“I’m definitely excited for the rest of the season because I started out better than I ever have,” Madsen said.

Madsen and Bush, a senior, both had strong performances for the women and combined for three victories and two second-place finishes for GVSU. Bush followed up her 1,000-yard freestyle win with a first-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle, posting a time of 5:09.29.

Madsen said in order for GVSU to post solid times all season long, the Lakers are going to have to avoid injuries, which slowed down the team at times last year, and continue to train hard every day.

On the men’s side, the Lakers were led by Beebe, a senior, who pulled off three victories during the meet, winning the 200-yard medley relay, the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard butterfly. His efforts in those three races alone helped GVSU earn 29 points of their 88 points.

Sophomore Sven Kardol also swam a strong race in the men’s 200-yard backstroke, finishing 0.1 seconds behind the winner.

“I’m pretty satisfied with how the meet went, I think everyone did well,” said sophomore Sven Kardol. “I would like to improve my stamina and breast stroke, but those are things I plan to work on all season long.”

Moving forward, as the Lakers prepare to open up their conference schedule, Boyce said both teams need to continue work hard in practice and push each other to get better, but most of all focus on taking the season one meet at a time.

GVSU will have its first home meet of the season Friday when the team faces off against Lewis University at 5 p.m.

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