Grand Valley State University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams enjoyed winning a meet so much Friday they decided to do it the next day, too.

Fresh off joint ninth-place finishes at the 2009 NCAA Championships, the two squads defeated Calvin College on the road Friday before downing Ashland University at home Saturday.

“We really stepped up this weekend,” said GVSU head coach Andy Boyce. “We had some fast swims (Friday) night against Calvin and some great dives (Saturday) against Ashland. We’re continuing to improve upon our times in the pool and putting scores on the boards. It’s a good key to have consistency this early in the season, and we really stepped up today.”

Ashland, similar to GVSU, was one of the better overall squads in the nation last year. Boyce said the Eagles always pose a formidable threat.

“It was a nice win for us,” Boyce said. “Ashland’s a real strong conference rival. They were a top-10 team in both men’s and women’s at nationals last year, as were we. They were a tough competition for us. Things went real well, and we came out on the winning side.”

In addition to overpowering a tough foe, Boyce said he was especially impressed with the performance of his senior swimmers and his divers. All three divers from the women’s team qualified for the NCAA tournament at season’s end.

“Jordan Schrotenboer had a big meet,” Boyce said. “He won the 100 backstroke, he won the 200 IM, and those were some nice swims. He was on our 800 free relay at the end that finished second. Kim Baughman had some great swims for the women’s team. On the boards, we had all three of our female divers finish first, second and third, qualifying for nationals.”

Baughman, one of the women’s team leaders as a senior, was part of four events finishing in first during the weekend.

“I think the team swam really well this weekend,” she said. “I think everyone was really happy with the times we were hitting. I don’t think it surprised anyone that we beat Ashland, but we definitely thought that it would be a closer meet than it was.”

Although he is in his senior year at GVSU, Schrotenboer swam a new event for the first time at GVSU Friday. With a tough meet against Ashland looming the next day, he said the change of pace helped him relax and ease his mind.

“Personally, I was pretty happy with how I did against Calvin,” he said. “I swam the butterfly for the first time since I was 15 and did pretty well in it. It’s pretty fun to swim an off-event, sort of like a change of scenery.”

Though Calvin was not expected to pose nearly as strong of a threat as Ashland, Schrotenboer said the team was still able to focus and perform strongly.

“As a team, I thought we did really well,” he said. “For it being a smaller meet and knowing that we had Ashland the next day, the team had a great attitude and approached it the right way.”

The teams have the next two weeks off before hosting Michigan State University Nov. 12 at Jenison High School.

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