The Grand Valley State men’s and women’s swim and dive teams looked a little more tan than normal this past Saturday, Jan. 7, when they took on Wayne State in the GVSU pool. This is because they had just returned from a training trip in Miami, Florida.

“We had two practices a day,” said GVSU coach Andy Boyce. “We would practice swimming for two hours in the morning, and diving for two hours in the morning. Then we would to the same thing in the afternoon. After our morning sessions we usually had about 45 minutes of either dry-land exercises or weights. Good training, good weather and we came back ready to roll.”

The Lakers took their talents to South Beach starting Wednesday, Dec. 28. Eleven practices later, they were ready to take on the Wayne State Warriors. GVSU dove into the new semester just the way they had envisioned, with the men claiming the win 198-102, and the women also taking home a 172-128 victory.

This meet was one of the largest meets GVSU will have this season.

For the women, Sam Postmus set a pool record in the 200-yard freestyle with a final time of 1:51.64. She also finished first in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:12.48.

Speaking of pool records, the GVSU A-team consisting of Gabriel Souza, Liam Little, Ben Walling, and Danny Abbott also broke a pool record in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a final time of 3:04.89.To put that time in perspective, the world record in the 400-meter relay was set by a team including Michael Phelps. The final time for their team was 3:03:30.

For the men, Abbott also had a monster day for the Lakers. Other than being part of a pool record in the 400-yard freestyle relay, he also finished first in the 400-yard medley relay as part of the GVSU A-team with a time of 3:24.15, he finished first in the 50-yard freestyle with a final time of 21.32 and he also came in first in the 100-yard freestyle with a final time of 46.33.

“(Wayne State) had a ton of tough training too, so we were sort of in the same boat,” Abbott said. “We were confident and that’s how you need to approach every meet, and how you can get your best results.”

On the women’s side, Leonie Van Noort had another stellar day in the pool. She finished second in the 200-yard butterfly behind teammate Melina Goebel with a time of 2:15.02. She also finished first in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:34.56. Van Noort finished first in the 500-yard freestyle as well with a final time of 5:04.96. She capped off the day with another first place victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay as part of the GVSU A-team finishing with a time of 3:37.66.

Van Noort has her eyes set on bigger goals for herself.

“For me personally, I am focused on nationals,” Van Noort, a defending champion, said. “I hope I can win all my races at nationals and that’s what I’m really going for.

As far as diving went, Brad Dalrymple showed more of the same while winning both boards again. For the 3-meter dive he finished with a score of 336.45, and in the 1-meter dive he finished with a final score of 308.47.

“Today I felt a little nervous,” Dalrymple said. “One of the Wayne guys had a bigger list (of dives) than me, but you’ve just got to stay focused and do what you know.”

The GVSU swim and dive teams will be back in action next Saturday, Jan. 14 at Findlay.