This last Saturday, Oct. 12, the Grand Valley State University battled the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in swimming and diving. The GV men’s team scored 161 points and won every event, compared to Milwakuee’s 64 points. The GV women’s team also beat Milwaukee, 151-92.

“We were bloody awesome…I loved every second of it. Everyone on the team was in a great mood. Milwakuee is a great team to (swim against). We had never (played) them before so it was fun,” Jesse Goodyear said. 

GVSU’s swim team had very strong performances in the long distance events. For the men’s 1000 meter freestyle, Goodyear and Moritz Bartels finished with times of 9:33.84 and 9:40.38, respectively.

Goodyear and Bartels also took the top two spots in the men’s 500 freestyle with times of 4:44.78 and 4:47.85. Junior Cade Vruggink took third in the 500 with a 4:52.94 time, and gave GVSU the top three finishes in that event. 

“The 1000 was solid, I’m happy with my time,” Bartels said. “In the 500, I was hurting, and would have liked to have been faster. We’ve been practicing hard, and I gave everything (I had) in the races.”

The women’s side of long distance events also dominated. Neta Shiff took first in the women’s 500 and 1000 with times of 5:07.29 and 10:29.8. Her teammate and team captain Melina Goebel, finished second in the 500 with a time of 5:19.72. Both of their strong performances pushed the teams long distance events to the top. 

“She killed it today,” GVSU head swimming coach Andy Boyce said about Shiff. “It was a really impressive performance for her. Especially coming back after the 1000, getting out of the pool, and ten minutes later performing the 200 freestyle. She was also able to go faster than she did last week in the 500.” 

GVSU took first place in all of the short distance freestyle events. In the women’s 200 freestyle, Goebel and Shiff took the top times with 1:56.58 and 1:58.14.

Keegan Hawkins won the men’s 200 freestyle with a time of 1:44.97, and Vruggink took third again swimming a 1:46.23. In the women’s 50-yard freestyle, Kelly Peasley won with a time of 25.06 and Claire Meeuwsen took third with 25.20. Dzmitry Novikau won the same event for men with a time of 21.98.

In the butterfly event for women, Bianca Licari placed second with a time of 59.53. Samantha Laurich placed third with a time of 1:01.27. For men, Saura Armengol placed first with a time of 52.03, and Hawkins placed third with 53.28.

Delaney Wihebrink won the women’s 100 breast stroke for the Lakers, with a time of 1:06.22. Samantha Laurich wook second with a time of 1:08.46.

For the men’s breastroke, Hawkins took first with a time of 58.77. The 100 women’s backstroke was won by De Cort, with a time of 59.14. Harry Shalamon, Roger Miret Sala, and Noah Ellis took the top three spots in the men’s backstroke. Shalamon took first with a time of 52.41. 

The GVSU relay teams also performed well. The Lakers men’s A teams won the 200 medley and freestyle relay with times of 1:36.35 and 1:26.83 respectively. The women’s A relay team won the medley relay with a time of 1:47.58, and took second in the freestyle with 1:40.22.

“The relays performed really well today. We were worried about our sprint relays,” said Tabor Smyth, team captain and relay racer. “We’re not really sprint heavy this year, but we’ve had a few guys step up and become sprinters. They threw up good times, especially in the 200 relay. We did a really good job against a good Milwaukee group.” 

The Lakers also performed strongly in the diving side of the event.

In the 1-meter diving events, Mikayla Karasek and Allyson Schafer took second and third with scores of 267.66 and 257.92. Nick Burciaga won the event for men with a score of 287.1, and Christopher Kelly took third with 251.32 points.

Kelly won the 3 meter diving events for GV with 293.47 points, and Burciaga took second with 243.66. For women 3 meter diving, GVSU took all three top spots. Karasek scored 280.12 points and took first. 

“I was very, very happy with the way we’re diving right now,” head diving coach Steve Burciaga said. “Based on our training, and our scores in diving today, I was estatic…..We got three national cuts today. I wasn’t expecting it. I was expecting one maybe, but to get three was awesome. It’s a little early to get cuts, but it shows where our program is going.” 

Other swimming events won by the Lakers were in the men’s 100 IM and freestyle. Ahmed Nabih won the IM event with a time of 53.43 and Roger Miret Sala took second with 53.56. In the men’s 100 freestyle David Turner and Daniel Mullen finished second and third with times of 49.37 and 49.40. In the women’s 100 freestyle, Kelly Peasley won the event with a time of 53.71. Rebecca Farber took second with a time of 54.57. In the women’s 100 IM, Delaney Wihebrink took second with 1:01.92, and Samantha Laurich took third with 1:02.28. 

The Lakers won this meet convincingly, and the coaches and players know it. They have started their season out on a good note, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement, Boyce said. “Each time we go out there and race we learn a little more about how to pace things.  Hopefully we learned a lot from this one. The first meet jitters are out of the way, and we want to build on each week.” 

The Lakers swimming and diving teams next meet is against Hillsdale and Calvin in Grand Rapids, on Friday, Oct. 18.