At the UAA championship meet in Atlanta over the weekend, the men and women took fourth and sixth place, respectively. (Courtesy of Erica Stein | The Emory Wheel)

After three days of swimming in Atlanta, the Washington University men’s and women’s swimming squads finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in the University Athletic Association championship meet.

The UAA proved to be a very competitive conference, with two women’s squads and three men’s teams ranked in the top 10 nationally. Host school Emory University claimed the top spot in both men’s and women’s competition.

“I think the UAA is one of the best conferences in Division III,” said senior co-captain Dima Galkin, who claimed two top-eight finishes and was a member of the 400 medley relay team. “Whereas some other conferences might have two schools in the top 10, the UAA has sometimes three or even four. Even though Emory was at the top, that doesn’t detract from other teams, especially Chicago, [that] improved a lot from this year to last year.”

The multi-day structure of the meet challenged the Bears. According to Galkin, experience with a two-day meet earlier in the season in addition to the support of teammates helped maintain energy throughout the competition.

“We started off kind of slow as a team, and we just got stronger throughout the entire meet, and I think it was really a matter of being mentally tough, because we definitely started off with some low swims,” senior co-captain Jessie Lodewyk said. “It gets hard to keep yourself mentally ready to go, and we definitely kept our energy up and [were] thinking positive.”

In the latter two days of the meet, the men’s squad earned the UAA championship in two events. On Friday, junior David Chao claimed the top spot in the 200 freestyle. His time of 1:41.42 earned all-UAA recognition and an NCAA provisional cut. Chao was also runner-up in the 100 freestyle, earning all-UAA honors and a provisional cut in that race.

Saturday, the men’s 400 freestyle relay team of freshman Mark Minowitz, senior Dan Arteaga, junior Kartik Anjur and Chao earned Wash. U.’s second straight conference title in that event. The team finished the meet’s last race in 3:05.02 and earned another NCAA provisional cut. “David Chao came back on the anchor leg and he caught the Emory guy who was in the lead…It was a really good split and it was the fastest split in that race,” Galkin said. “It really stood out especially because it was the last race.”

Performances by the women’s squad were highlighted by Lodewyk’s performances in the 500 and 1,650 freestyles. In the 1,650, her second-place time of 17:12.67 automatically qualified her for competition at the NCAA Division III championships. In addition, sophomore Karina Stridh earned all-UAA recognition in two events, placing third in the 50 freestyle and second in the 100 backstroke.

“I felt pretty good about [my swims],” Stridh said. “I had a bit of a rocky year myself. I had some issues with my shoulders and hadn’t been hitting the same times as last year. I got season-best times in everything I swam. Even in terms of standings, I didn’t expect to do as well as I did.”

The team focuses on the NCAA’s national championship meet, March 17-20 in Minneapolis. According to Lodewyk, although the team tapers for conference, swimmers will re-taper before the Division III national championships.

“Next step is nationals and it [definitely] becomes a whole new ball game” Lodewyk said. “[Training] gets more stroke intensive, a lot more focused on technique. You also just have to get mentally ready because nationals is just a huge step up in accomplishment.”

Senior Dan Arteaga swims the butterfly at a meet. Arteaga is one of Student Life’s Athletes of the Week. (Courtesy Of Wash U Sports Information)

Senior Dan Arteaga, co-captain of the men’s swim team, has been an important part of his No. 6 team’s success. In the Bears’ most recent meet, a 134-76 rout of the Principia College Panthers, Arteaga claimed first in the 200 freestyle—an event outside his specialty—and was part of a first-place 200  medley relay team. Arteaga is one of Student Life’s Athletes of the Week.

Student Life: How do you feel about your times so far?

Dan Arteaga: Overall, I definitely had a great first half of the season. Starting with the second or third meet, I had a meet at Mizzou, and did pretty well there. [My swims] were pretty consistent the entire first half. Right after training trip, I was really sore, really stiff. I didn’t have a great first two meets of 2010. But then the last meet, Principia, was actually a pretty good meet for me. I swam some events that I usually don’t swim, the 200 freestyle and 100 back, and actually did pretty well in the 200 freestyle at least. I was happy with that, and it was definitely a confidence booster. I do plan on going faster at conference in three and a half weeks.

SL: What goals do you have individually, and for your team, for the rest of the season?

DA: We want to get second place at conference. Our biggest competition right now is NYU and Carnegie Mellon. Emory has too much depth [and] is way too good. They pretty much automatically win. But we want to beat NYU, which has a lot of depth, a lot of guys. We also want to make a lot of relays for nationals, get a lot of guys going to nationals who have never gone before. Our goal is to be a top-five team. Individually, I want to at least get a ‘B’ cut in my three main events; the 100 freestyle, the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly, and I want to go best times in all of those events. I hope to score, at least get top 16 in all of those. I want to have very fast swims on relays at conference.

SL: Have any races in particular stood out to you this year?

DA: Definitely the 400 freestyle relay at Principia. David Chao had some amazing races…The one where he beat John Cook [of DePauw] in the 100 freestyle at our invite was a pretty good one. He also had two good 200 freestyle races, one at the beginning of the season at the DePauw Invite and his relay split in the 800 freestyle relay at the Wash. U. invite had an amazing time. My best swim so far was at Wheaton on the 400 freestyle relay, where I was the second leg and split a 45.8 and we had an overall time of 4:04.0. It was an exciting race all the way through the relay, and it concluded the meet on a high note for me.

SL: What is the most challenging part of practice for you?

DA: Honestly one of the most challenging parts is just getting in the water in the first place because it’s always so cold. It’s always so nice and comfortable outside on the deck, warm and relaxed, you don’t want to get in the water—sometimes, not all the time. Besides that, I’m a sprinter, so the longer sets we have, especially Mondays are sometimes a challenge for me because they’re just continuous and long and that’s not really my specialty. My specialty is just short, quick stuff. Wednesdays are always a challenge. It’s quick stuff—to go fast times and keep swimming throughout the entire set is fun though, too, just racing your teammates.

The Bears captured first place in 16 events, with the men taking 10 and the women winning six. The Red and Green raced in many of its nontraditional events, with distance swimmers competing in sprints and short distance swimmers in long-distance events.

Several captains viewed the change in pace as a morale booster.

“All of us were swimming our off events to have fun and do something different,” senior co-captain Dan Arteaga said.

One of the closest races pitted two Wash. U. 200-yard medley relay squads against each other. The B squad, consisting of junior Kartik Anjur, seniors Arteaga and Alex Beyer and sophomore Ben Halperin, edged out the A squad of sophomores Billy Griffitts and Nick Thornburg, junior David Chao and senior Brian Kushner by 0.03 seconds. Down by more than a second in the final leg, Kushner almost came back to secure the win over his teammates.

Other first-place finishes included Kushner in the 100 freestyle, Arteaga in the 200 freestyle, senior Dima Galkin in the 200-yard individual medley, Chao in the 100 butterfly, Anjur in the 200 free, and freshman Brendan Morin in the 1,000 freestyle. Sophomore John Rao took the top spot in the 1-meter diving competition, besting three Panthers with 215.45 points.

Freshman Sarah Paleg won the women’s 1-meter diving competition.

“It’s amazing having [divers] both from the points stand point and the team stand point,” senior co-captain Jessie Lodewyk said.

Last season, Wash. U. did not field divers.

The entire team recently returned from their annual training trip in Florida.

“It’s almost like a whole new season,” Lodewyk said. “This year more than any other, we’ve seen underclassmen step up.”

Other top finishes for the women’s team included Lodewyk in the 200 IM; freshmen Grace Preston and Veronica Tse in the 200 freestyle and 1,000 freestyle, respectively; and junior Karin Underwood in the 100 butterfly. Wash. U.’s 200 medley and 200 free relay squads also picked up victories.

Several Wash. U. swimmers pointed to sophomore Michael Flanagan’s 100-butterfly as a standout performance from the meet. Flanagan turned in the top time of 1:03.44.

One of the events with the biggest buildup was the 400 freestyle relay. The Bears C squad defeated Principia’s squad last weekend at the Wash. U. Invitational by about a half second. As a result, the Panthers challenged the Bears to a rematch, according to junior Justin Chen.

Joining Chen’s squad were sophomores JD Scott and Evan Dorshorst and senior John Vanlishout.

“We really didn’t want to lose to Principia,” Chen said. “We [even] had a special cheer.”

The Bears outdid the Panthers by 0.95 seconds, turning in a time of 3:19.75. It was also the first time Chen broke 50 seconds in a leg, with a 49.7 split time. “It was just palpable how exciting it was,” sophomore Karina Stridh said. “Everyone had their hearts beating out of their chests.”

Friday’s meet was the squad’s final competition before the University Athletic Association championships. According to Kushner, this is the hardest the team has trained in his four years at Wash. U. Kushner attributes this effort to the team capitalizing on last year’s success at nationals, in which the men’s team had its second best performance in program history with a seventh-place finish.

The UAA championships will be hosted by Emory University from Feb. 17-20 in Atlanta. Emory’s men’s team is ranked fourth in the nation, while the Lady Eagles are top ranked. Several UAA schools, including Carnegie Mellon University, University of Chicago and New York University, also boast nationally ranked programs.

In the lead up to conference play, the team focuses on team bonding, according to Stridh. The women’s team traditionally makes funny necklaces for each other and plans on making a banner for conference play. Each swimmer is responsible for a tile that will ultimately spell out Go Bears. “We goof around, and it’s so much fun, but at the same time we get really intense too, especially before swim meets,” Stridh said. “You know you have your team there, and you know that  you can always rely on your team because they’re going to do the best they can.”

This event was the Bears’ last competition of the fall season and is considered their most important meet behind the University Athletic Association and NCAA championships. In preparation for the invitational, the team “tapered,” reducing the amount of yardage in workouts at practice each day leading up to the meet.

“We decrease our yardage and kind of rest for the meet,” senior captain Jessie Lodewyk said. “It’s really a mental thing. Mentally and physically you just start to get really hyped up about the swim meet. When you get there it’s all mental, really preparing and racing hard. We definitely attacked our races and really stepped up our performance.”

Senior captain Alex Beyer’s first place finish in the 500 freestyle of 4:27.07 and a time of 3:58.43 in the preliminary race for the 400 individual medley earned him two NCAA automatic qualifying times.

“Overall it was a pretty decent meet; times were decent,” Beyer said. “We’re still not at where we want to be at the end of the season, so we have a lot of work left to do.”

The team capped off the meet with a first-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay that earned an NCAA provisional cut, as well as a new meet and pool record. The relay squad of Beyer, senior captain Dan Arteaga, freshman Mark Minowitz and junior David Chao finished the race in 3:04.02.

Two additional relays earned NCAA provisional cuts: the 200 freestyle relay of Arteaga, Beyer, freshman Brendan Morin and Chao, and the 400 medley relay of junior Kartik Anjur, Beyer, Arteaga and Chao. Both were first-place finishes.

The women’s squad placed fourth out of six teams, but earned four NCAA provisional cuts at the meet. Lodewyk led the Bears with two cuts, placing first in the 200 freestyle and finishing runner-up in the 500 freestyle. “I was really excited about my times,” Lodewyk said. “I’ve historically had a really bad Wheaton meet, so I was really excited to go those times at mid-season. I had someone to race against the whole meet, and that’s when I swim my best.”

Junior Karin Underwood won the 200 backstroke and earned a provisional cut with her time of 2:08.10 in the preliminary race. Freshman Meg Powers also finished first with a time of 59.52 in the 100 butterfly. Sophomore Karina Stridh was runner-up in the 100 backstroke, and her preliminary time of 59.63 also qualified for a provisional cut.

“We had some really good swims,” Lodewyk said. “There were some people that stepped up in a really big way…People took it up to the next level and performed the way they needed to perform.”

The Bears return to competition on Jan. 8. Their dual meet with Lindenwood University will be hosted at the Millstone Pool and is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.

Senior Alex Beyer competes in the 200 breaststroke. Beyer took first in this event, the 400 IM and was part of the first place 400 freestyle relay team. The men defeated DePauw 151-147. (Jared Bullock | Student Life)

With a first-place finish in Saturday’s last event, the 400 freestyle relay, the men secured a 151-147 win, while the women’s squad bested the Tigers, 155-129.

“The guys came through with a really solid swim. That’s a good way to finish it,” head coach Brad Shively said. “[There was] competitiveness in the relays. I liked seeing the relays out there fighting and scrapping, getting a little down and dirty. I think that’s the sign of a team that’s got some grit.”

The relay, comprised of senior Dan Arteaga, freshman Mark Minowitz, senior Alex Beyer and junior David Chao, finished the close race less than one second ahead of DePauw’s ‘A’ relay in 3:10.07.

“I’m a huge relay swimmer; I get really pumped up especially on anchor leg,” Chao said. “We had to win that relay to win the meet, so I kind of like the pressure.”

The men’s team took first place in seven events in addition to the winning relay and the 200 medley relay. Sophomore Chris Valach won the 1,000 and 500 freestyles. Seniors Beyer and Dima Galkin claimed first and second place in the 200 breaststroke.

Beyer also won the 400 individual medley. Chao took the top spot in the 200 freestyle, and fellow junior Michael Flanagan swept the butterfly events. Chao was also the lone Wash. U. swimmer to win an event against SIUC, taking the 100 freestyle in 47.40.

“We got a couple of victories against two very good teams…I thought it was great. We swam a meet last night, and [the team] didn’t make any excuses,” Shively said. “I thought we swam a lot tougher today than we did [against SIUC]. I just thought we were really competitive, really combative out there.”

The women’s team had victories in 10 events, and several swimmers claimed two individual races. Senior captain Jessie Lodewyk took both distance freestyle events, and sophomore Karina Stridh won the 100 backstroke and 50 freestyle. Three new Bears won events: Freshman Meg Powers swept the butterfly events, Sarah Paleg won the 1-meter diving, and Veronica Tse won the 200 freestyle. Powers expressed excitement for the team’s future events.

“I’m pumped. This is really fun,” Powers said. “We’re definitely very good at getting pumped up…We’re really good at having men’s and women’s [teams] working together.”

Shively noted the teams’ consistency as a key to the wins. With two dual meets in two days, the team worked on moving swimmers in different events to test its strengths.

“I don’t think there’s an event that we have where we are great, and we’re trying to make sure that any event that we’re pretty good at, if it’s a strength, it stays a strength,” Shively said. “We’re also trying to shore up, and we swam people in a lot of different things between [SIUC] and [DePauw] to try and figure out what we have.”

The Bears continue competition on Nov. 21 at the Washington University Thanksgiving Invitational.

In a meet dominated by the University of Missouri, which took first place in all 16 events, the women’s squad took fifth out of seven. The Lady Bears edged out Lindenwood University and Stephens College. Missouri State, Drury and Saint Louis University placed ahead of the women.

In men’s action, the Bears were unable to defeat any opponents in the team score. Missouri State, Mizzou, Drury, Missouri S&T, SLU and Lindenwood finished ahead of the men’s squad.

Yet no one on either side was upset by losing in the team standings.

“Nobody gets really discouraged if we lose to Mizzou, but it’s a really good chance to race really fast teams,” said sophomore Catherine Rafferty-Millett, who finished 11th in the 100 individual medley with a 1:02.94.

Rafferty-Millett also combined with freshman Veronica Tse, sophomore Amy VanLishout and freshman Meghan Powers to place fourth in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:45.36.

On the men’s side, senior captain Dan Arteaga finished sixth place in the 50 butterfly with a time of 23.75 seconds and seventh in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.74 seconds. Senior captain Dima Galkin went 1:00.45 to finish 12th in the 100 breaststroke, and his 28.04 seconds was good for 13th in the 50 breaststroke.

“There [were] a lot of good teams there this weekend,” Arteaga said. “It was definitely a good experience overall.”

Other noteworthy performances included freshmen on both the men’s and women’s sides for the Bears. Powers, in addition to her performance in the 400 free relay, also finished 11th in the 100 butterfly and 15th in the 50 butterfly. Tse finished 12th in the 50 breaststroke and 15th in the 50 freestyle.

“I was around my time for this point in the season,” Powers said. “I mean, I’d like to go a little faster, ultimately, but not bad for the beginning.”

For the men’s team, freshman Brendan Morin swam with the 200 freestyle relay team and finished sixth, along with senior co-captains Arteaga, Alex Beyer and Brian Kushner.

“It was good competition. You don’t see people that fast in D-III, and they were flying,” Morin said. “It’s good to have someone much faster than you to race against, because it gives you a good idea of where you’re at.”

While the team didn’t gain any first-place finishes or team victories this weekend, there is much to be gained from meets like these.

“It really motivates us, because the teams that we raced against are more like the teams we’re going to be facing at nationals and at conference championships,” Rafferty-Millett said. “Obviously we’re not winning events at Mizzou, so it motivates us to train harder because we see how fast the competition really is out there.”

The Bears face Division I Southern Illinois University-Carbondale on Oct. 30.

With additional reporting by Johann Qua Hiansen

“Overall we did pretty well: The guys only lost one event, the 100 backstroke…I guess we’re all very glad with our swims for the most part,” senior captain Dan Arteaga said. “We swim against [SLU] every year; they’re great competitors.”

Three male swimmers were double event winners during the Bears’ 142-95 defeat of the Billikens. Senior Alex Beyer claimed the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle, junior David Chao won the 100 and 200 freestyles, and Arteaga took the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly.

“I was pretty happy with all my swims. Especially since I didn’t swim as much as I should have [over] the summer,” Arteaga said. “I felt good in the water…We’re also kind of starting to build up and really start training hard this month: start lifting a lot more, getting more yardage, just training harder.”

The team claimed both first and second places in the 200 IM and 100 butterfly, with junior Michael Flanagan placing behind Beyer and Arteaga. With a first-place time of 1:26.46 in the 200 freestyle relay, freshman Brendan Morin, Arteaga, Beyer and Chao finished the meet’s dominant performance.

“Getting up there and going fast [is a challenge], but once you get over that, it’s all easy I guess,” Arteaga said.

Senior captain Jessie Lodewyk was the only individual event winner for the women’s squad as SLU finished ahead of the Bears 164-70. Lodewyk finished first in the 1,000 and 500 freestyles with times of 11:00.94 and 5:24.66, respectively. The team had several second-place finishes, including two by freshmen.

“[The meet] was really exciting. It’s always nice to see new talent, everyone together as a team for the first time,” Lodewyk said. “It’s really neat because each team has a different dynamic. I was really excited, really pumped up; it was a really good first meet.”

Lodewyk noted that the meet occurred close to the team’s official start of practice, and the Bears will continue to intensify training for future meets.

“Just working and getting into better physical condition, just really working on our aerobic base,” Lodewyk said. “And then definitely you always want your team closer, more motivated, just really psyching up and getting prepared for our big meets this season—keeping in mind the long-range goals. That’s our big focus.”

The Bears’ next meet is the Show-Me Showdown on Oct. 10-11 at the University of Missouri-Columbia.