Results
The University of Evansville men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams opened the 2010-11 season with two wins at the Butler Invitational Sunday.
The women’s team walked away with a 3-0 record, beating Valparaiso (186-46), Saint Louis University (141-97) and Butler (190-40). The men went 2-1 on the weekend, beating Valparaiso (146-76) and IUPUI (128-96.5) before falling to Saint Louis (102-136).
“I’m very happy with the way we performed,” said head coach
Rickey Perkins. “We have been training very hard in the pool as well as with our dry-land work, and I think that we came out a little tired, but overall we had some very good swims.
"Before the meet, I stressed that times and scores weren’t important for this meet,” explained Perkins. “ This early in the season, it just comes down to effort and I was extremely proud of our effort this weekend.”
The women tabbed nine first place finishes throughout the meet. Senior Christina Schmidgall won all three of her events, recording top times in the 1000, 500 and 200 free. Freshman Melissa Thurman made her collegiate debut by taking two first place finishes in the 200 IM and 200 breast, while sophomore Michea Reinitz tabbed a first place finish in the 50 free. UE also posted a first place finish in the 400 medley relay with Reinitz, sophomore Jill Enge, juniors Hannah Quast and Alex Howard swimming for the Aces. Sophomore diver Sadie Wells picked up where she left off last season, taking the first place score for both the 1M and 3M dives.
The men tallied three first place finishes on the weekend. Sophomore Alex Seward posted the top time for the 100 free while senior diver Andy Balczo finish first in the 3M dive. UE ended the meet with an exciting 400 free relay finale. Seward joined junior Jake Harrington, sophomore Kyle Tiemann and senior Chris Nash to finish 00.34 seconds faster than Saint Louis University to clench the first place finish.
The Aces return to action as they travel to Muncie, Ind., to take on Ball State this weekend.
