Last year was the debut of the Grand Valley State University club swimming team. Now with over 40 members, the club opened the season against Central Michigan University’s club team.

The GVSU men came away victorious 588-536, while the GVSU women dropped a 411-294 decision to Central Michigan.

“We did really good for our first meet,” said junior club president Tim Layer. “Obviously the first meet was going to be tough. We’re all getting back into shape and we are all trying to see what we can do. We did really well, and we all had really good swims. I was very impressed.”

Brooke Rahn and Adam LaPorte were bright spots for the Lakers. Both Rahn and LaPorte won their heats in their events. Rahn swam the 200-meter freestyle in 2 minutes, 19 seconds. LaPorte finished the 500 freestyle in 5:40.20 and the 1,000 freestyle in 12:00.20.

While GVSU was pleased with their first outing of the season, they realize there is still work left to do. The club practices on Mondays and Wednesdays and they plan on addressing certain areas.
“Going into this, it was mostly to see where we were at,” Layer said. “Definitely more stroke improvement and just getting that down. We need to get longer strokes with arms and kicking.”

The GVSU swimming club was awarded “Best New Organization of 2011-2012” and they have different levels for their members. They welcome serious competitive swimmers and people who would rather swim socially.

“Our goal is to be a competitive team, but also have fun and meet other people,” said junior club treasurer Erin Schoenherr. “(We are) able to swim still even if we are not at the varsity level, if we still have the passion for swimming, this club allows us to do that.”

The club swimming team will be in action October 27 at Bowling Green State University.