By Hannah Hecht– Just one meet into the season, many of the Mustang swimmers will tell you they are the 2014-2015 GPAC conference champions.
“After being uncontested GPAC conference champions the last however many years since our program’s inception, it’s really refreshing to have another GPAC team to swim against,” said senior captain Josh Karel.”
This past Saturday, the Mustangs men and women competed against Nebraska Wesleyan in a dual, Wesleyan’s first swim meet in college history.
Led by sophomore Evelyn Edge, the Mustang women annihilated the inaugural NWU women’s team, beating them 116 to 66. Edge won both the 200 yard freestyle (2:06.39) and the 500 yard freestyle (5:42.01), and she also joined teammates Courtney Podczerwinski, Jaimie Fast and Emma Magsamen to win the 200 yard freestyle relay in a time of 1:47.49.
Senior Cole Malin led the men’s team to a 104-86 victory, winning the sprint events. He took the gold in the 50 yard freestyle in 22.51 and the 100 yard freestyle in 49.81. He also led off the first place 200 yard freestyle relay alongside Mason Hartwig, Alex Paulsen and Evan Persson (1:30.92).
“I think we swam well as a team,” said Edge, “We have a lot more depth than last year, and it showed in our results.”
The women used that depth to win nine out of the 13 events: Savannah Larson in the 1000 yard freestyle (14:12.07); Magsamen in the 50 yard freestyle (26.94); Madison Reynolds in the 100 yard butterfly (1:09.08); Podczerwinski in the 100 yard freestyle (1:01.74); Hannah Hecht in the 100 yard backstroke (1:06.91) and the 200 yard medley relay team of Hecht, Mikki Suchomel, Reynolds and Magsamen (2:01.56).
On the men’s side, the win came from below. Although NWU won eight out of 13 events, the Mustangs were often able to score big points with second and third place. However, Hartwig was able to score gold in the 200 yard freestyle (1:52.33), while Joe Schueller took first in the 500 yard freestyle (5:33.35).
“I feel good about the upcoming season,” said Fast, senior captain. “Some of our times seem like they could have been faster this meet, but our team trains in such a way that we work harder than a lot of the other teams in the regular season. We’re able to improve a lot more than the other guys when we get to our important meets in February. I’m really excited to see where we go.”
The Mustangs will dive back into action with a home dual against Coe College on November 8.
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