After four days of different varieties of aquatic competition against the rest of the GLIAC, the Grand Valley State swim and dive teams came away with positive finishes on Feb. 13.

The men’s team never trailed after day one and took home first place with a final team score of 840, while the women steadied the course to finish in second place with a final team score of 763 behind Wayne State.

“We are just really happy about how our team pulled together, both the men and the women,” said GVSU head coach Andy Boyce. “We put everything together in the end when it counted.”

Since the start of the meet on Feb 10, GVSU’s Gianni Ferrero and Leonie Van Noort headlined Waterford Mott High School’s hosting of the GLIAC Championships.

Ferrero won his second consecutive GLIAC individual title in the 200-meter individual medley events with a final time of 1:46.08. Ferrero also went on to win the 100-meter fly event on day two, as well as the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 47.00, which set the GLIAC record, the GLIAC championship meet record and the GVSU varsity record. On the final day, Ferrero took home his fourth individual title of the championships after winning the 100-meter freestyle event.

“It wasn’t my greatest meet,” Ferrero said. “I’m glad I could help the team though by winning my individual events. At the end it really matters that I got the points for the team. So, overall I was happy.”

Ferrero also helped GVSU capture first place in both the 200 and 400-meter medley relay races along with teammates Tim Harris, Gabriel Souza, Marius Mikalauskas, Ben Walling and Danny Abbott. Ferrero’s four individual wins give him seven total individual GLIAC titles and 14 GLIAC titles in total for his career, including relays.

Van Noort finished in first place on the women’s side in the 1,000-meter free. Her time of 9:58.44 broke her own school record by seven seconds. She won her second individual GLIAC title on day two with a victory in the 200-meter free with a time of 1:49.06. Just like Ferrero on the men’s side, Van Noort continued her dominance by winning another event, the 500-meter freestyle event on day three, and also set the GLIAC meet record. She finished her dominance on the final day with yet another individual victory in the 1,650-meter freestyle event.

“Personally I thought I did good,” Van Noort said. “I’m happy with my performance, especially the 1,000 under 10 minutes. The team did well. We might have got second but we are still winners.”

Van Noort also helped GVSU take home the victory in the 800-meter free relay event along with Sam Postmus, Kathryn Culver and Lara Deibel. Just like Ferrero on the men’s side, Van Noort finished with four individual titles throughout the GLIAC championship meet.

Ferrero and Van Noort stole the spotlight for GVSU, but weren’t the only successful Lakers.

Sophomore Jared Gregory continued his undefeated streak at the meet by winning the 1-meter diving board with a score of 463.85. His teammate Brad Dalrymple finished first in the 3-meter diving board event with a final score of 493.70.

On the women’s side, Lara Deibel won the 200-meter individual relay event with a time of 2.04.62. Senior Taylor Wiercinski won her second career GLIAC crown and first on the 3-meter diving board with a score of 467.50.

The WSU men came in second with 720 points behind GVSU’s 840, while the Warrior women outpaced the GVSU women with 840.5 total points.

GVSU has a long break before the NCAA Division II National Championships starting on Mar. 8 in Indianapolis.