This past Saturday, Jan. 11, the GVSU Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving teams traveled to Indianapolis for the women to compete in a quadruple meet against the Greyhounds, Lindenwood and Davenport, while the men competed against the Greyhounds and Lindenwood. The Laker women won one of the three match-ups, pulling a score of 211-89 against Davenport and losing to the Greyhounds and Lindenwood. The men’s team beat Lindenwood 188-112 and lost to the Greyhounds.

On the women’s side, Neta Schiff took two second place titles in the 500-yard free and the 1,000-yard free, while Delaney Wihebrink took second place in the 100-yard breaststroke. 

One star swimmer on the men’s side, Oscar Saura Armengol, took the first place title in three races: 200-yard fly, 100-yard fly, and 100-yard free. Alongside Saura Armengol, Harry Shalamon claimed two second place titles and one third, and Jesse Goodyear followed with three third place titles.

“I wish we won, but at the same time I’m happy that I got good results and good times,” Saura Armengol said. “People were trying their best and everyone was really cheering for each other.”

Despite the few losses this past weekend, the team is still looking up and recovering from their recent travel from Florida last weekend, Jan. 4 and 5.

“We would’ve liked to come away with three wins on the women’s side and two wins on the men’s side, but it wasn’t in the cards today,” said GVSU coach Andy Boyce. “I think we swam and dove well. We probably could’ve done a little better, but we had some heavy training down in Florida and a 24-hour drive back about a week ago.”

While in recovery from their rigorous training, the team wants to focus on what they can start working on in practice to improve their results and take that to the championships. Next week, they will be competing against Findlay with some new goals and mindsets for the remainder of the season.

“Staying focused in our training, continuing to work hard, working on the finer points in the strokes and starts and turns, and we should do very well next week,” Boyce said. “We might’ve been the only school that started school this week so we’ve got a whole new set of things to think about, so getting into that routine as well.”

This weekend at the GVSU Fieldhouse pool, the Laker swim & dive teams will take on Findlay Saturday, Jan. 18 at 1 p.m. With an already stellar season thus far, Boyce has no doubts next week will be a successful meet and bring them one step closer in their season to the GLIAC Championships, starting Feb. 19.