On Saturday, the Grand Valley State swim and dive team swept a home dual meet against the Northern Michigan Wildcats. The Laker men came away with a 156-87 victory, and the Laker women nearly matched with a 158-85 win.

“It was another great weekend for the Lakers. We keep on working hard in practice, we are a little beat up and tired, and the team is still going out there and putting up great times and doing well on the boards,” said GVSU head coach Andy Boyce. “I hope they keep up the great work and I’m really pleased.”

The GVSU men came away with nine event victories on the day. Sophomore Gabriel Souza led the Lakers, as he helped secure two GVSU event wins. Souza was on the 400 medley relay team that touched the wall first with a time of 3:23.30, and he picked up an individual victory in the 100 freestyle with a time of 46.21.

“We did a really good job today and are pushing through being tired and hopefully we can keep up our fast times that we have been swimming so far,” Souza said.

Senior Gianni Ferrero won the 200 freestyle, Marius Mikalauskas won the 200 breaststroke, Danny Abbott touched the wall first in the 50 freestyle and Jesus Morales won the 200 butterfly. Jared Gregory and Ian Ellis both dove their way to championships — Gregory in the 1-meter and Ellis in the 3-meter.

The Laker women nearly equaled the men, snatching eight event wins in their victory over Wildcats. Junior Leonie Van Noort anchored the winning 400 freestyle team, as GVSU bested the top NMU squad by about three seconds.

Van Noort also came away with two individual victories — one in the 200 butterfly and one in the 1,000 free.

Junior Emily Gallagher was another key contributor for the Lakers, as she helped the 400 medley relay team start the meet with a tight win for GVSU. Gallagher also chipped in with two individual victories for the Laker women, as she won the 50 freestyle and the 200 breaststroke.

“We did really well as a team, we had a really hard week of practice,” Gallagher said. “I am pretty sure that everyone was pretty sore and tired before this meet but we were super pumped and did amazing. We showed great sportsmanship and everyone got up and cheered and really helped push each swimmer.

“I thought it was a really great team atmosphere in general.”

Lara Deibel came away with a first-place finish in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:56.00. Sam Postmus secured a first-place victory in the 200 individual medley, and Anna Barry picked up a Laker victory in the 3-meter dive event.

The Lakers are back in action on Nov. 14 as they take on the University of Indianapolis in Indianapolis.