GV Swim and Dive split meet against Northern Michigan University
GVL / Sydney Lim
Nov 1, 2021
The Grand Valley State University men’s and women’s swim and dive teams competed at home against Northern Michigan University on Oct. 29. The men left the event victorious with a 165 to 129 win; however, the women fell by a score of 171 to 129.
On the men’s side, they had several swimmers finish first in their individual events. Senior swimmer Oscar Saura-Armengol led the way with wins in the 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard butterfly, and 100-yard freestyle. Sophomore Matthew Lane also had a successful night with a win in the 200- yard breaststroke. These individual performances were backed by a tremendous team effort.
“I love when the team performs well,” said Lane. “It fires me up, it fires everyone else up. Personally, when I see everyone else around me, especially my team, swimming well, it motivates me. I have to do my thing cause I know everyone else is putting in their all and that is what I love about this team. Everyone goes so hard and everyone tries their absolute best every single time.”
Despite not leaving with a team victory, the women’s team also had two swimmers earn first-place finishes. Freshman Samantha Weigel won the 500 and 1000-yard freestyle while junior Delaney Wihebrink won the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke.
To go along with the success of the swimmers, the GVSU divers dominated the boards. For the men, Junior Wrigley Fields swept the competition by winning both the one and three-meter dives. Junior Gracyn Segard did the same in the women’s competition. For Segard this meet was her return to the pool as she was forced to take a week off after having her wisdom teeth removed.
“It’s definitely a little bit hard just like being out for a week and then having to come back and try to relearn all your hard dives; but, it was pretty easy to get back in the momentum of everything and just get all my easy dives back,” Segard said.
Even though the women’s team fell short of victory this time out, they didn’t let that stop them from keeping morale high.
“I think we stayed positive throughout the whole meet,” Segard said. “Even though we weren’t winning the whole time I think we did a good job of staying positive, cheering, and just being there for one another the whole entire meet.”
One of the biggest challenges that both teams have faced so far this season is staying healthy.
“We had at least a handful of people out,” said coach Andy Boyce. “We had a couple of injuries that sidelined people today from the meet, some of our better swimmers. If you miss three or four days of practice in a week it is going to be tough coming into the meet and it showed a little bit on a few people.”
For GVSU, the goal is to get healthy so they can build some momentum as the season progresses.
“Hopefully we can get it figured out this week and string together two, three, four weeks of good training,” Boyce said.
This is crucial for the Lakers as the student-athletes that have been able to practice have been seeing positive results already this season.
“It feels like every week we are significantly improving,” Lane said. “In the groups I’m in, we really push each other and I know it has definitely helped me progress through the season.”
The swim and dive teams will be on the road next weekend as they travel to take on Division Ⅰ opponents Oakland University and the University of Michigan on Nov. 5 and 6.
