The No. 15 women edged the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the final tally by three points, 834-831, while the No. 13 men scored 750 points, 167 behind Stevens Point.

“The meet…was different than other meets because we had Thanksgiving break before it, so we got some rest. It wasn’t just about competing, but it was also about going fast,” head coach Brad Shively said. “I thought we competed well. We did some videotaping and are going to go over a few things with the swimmers. We had a lot of really fast swims. It was really good for team unity and good to [see] the young swimmers doing so well.”

The women’s team finished first in seven events, second in four and third in six.

“The meet went really well,” freshman Sara Taege said. “The girls were defending champs from last year, but we ended up getting second. It was the first actual midseason meet where we rested for it. We’re really training for February, so this was just a checkpoint to see where everyone was.”

Taege was involved in four of the first-place finishes, with two individual victories. She won the 500-yard freestyle in 5:06.37, with sophomore Grace Murray finishing third in 5:06.95.

“We had [swum] it in the morning in prelims, and I had [swum] next to the same girl in finals and prelims,” Taege said. “In prelims I had just touched her out. We were all pretty even until the last little bit, and this other girl and I had just fallen behind while the pace was picking up. And the last 50 everyone just goes all out. I just gave it my all and just kicked as hard as I could and pushed myself.”

Taege also won the 400-yard individual medley in 4:33.68, making an NCAA B cut, with sophomore Meghan Lam finishing second in 4:42.17.

The Wash. U. women also won the 400-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard medley relay. Taege, freshman Jennifer Tartavull, and sophomores Chi Pham and Allison Siegel won the freestyle relay in 3:33.29. Pham, Murray, Tartavull and senior Catherine Rafferty-Millett finished the 400-yard medley in 3:59.63.

Pham played an important role in both victories, twice giving the Bears the lead for good. She also won individual races, the 100-yard backstroke (57.95 for a B cut) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:07.84 for a B cut).

Rafferty-Millett finished third in the 200 individual medley in 2:12.24.

“It was good to see the young swimmers, because we didn’t know how good they were. The upperclassmen were great leaders,” Shively said. “They showed the young swimmers how to compete. The relays went a lot faster than I thought. There was good spirit in the team. We did a good job finishing races.”

The men’s team finished first in six events, second in five and third in four.

Freshman Zane Turpin took first place and a spot in the Wash. U. record book, cruising in at 15:53.88 in the 1,650-yard freestyle, a time good enough for an NCAA B cut. Senior Chris Valach came in second at 16:18.20.

Turpin also won the 400-yard individual medley and 200-yard butterfly, with times of 4:00.60 and 1:54.15 respectively. His medley time was good enough for a B cut.

Valach placed in four races, the most among the Wash. U. men. In addition to his second-place 1,650-yard freestyle finish, he came in second to Turpin in the 200-yard butterfly, only .29 seconds behind. Valach’s other individual win came in the 500-yard freestyle, during which he came from behind in the last 150 yards to win.

“I just sped up at the end and had enough to win,” he said. “It’s a race strategy to wait until the end.”

Valach was part of the 800-yard freestyle relay team that came in first, along with sophomore Jason Wan, freshman Matt Nutter and junior Mark Minowitz. They finished in 6:55.44.

Minowitz also captured the 200-yard freestyle in 1:42.94 with Nutter finishing third in 1:44.19.

The swimming and diving teams now take some time off for winter break. The men return to action on Jan. 11 at Wabash College, while both teams will take part in the Washington University Invitational hosted in the I.E. Millstone Pool of the Athletic Complex on Jan. 13 and 14.

The men’s team was outscored 143-96, while the women’s team lost 152-87. The Bears chose to look at the positives that came out of the team’s first meet.

“We are only in the second week of the season. We started practice last Monday, so considering we’re only 11 days into practice, we posted some pretty solid times,” sophomore Chi Pham said. “The freshmen killed it. They were pumped, and it really showed.”

Freshman Luke Dobben was one of two first-year winners for the men’s side, as he took the 1,000-yard freestyle. Dobben pulled away from senior Chris Valach after the fourth lap and cruised to a victory in 10:03.42.

“It certainly feels good to pick up a win,” Dobben said. “Winning the 1,000 helped me to settle my nerves about starting collegiate swimming, and I hope I will be able to keep a good attitude so that I can continue to improve as the season progresses.”

Freshman Zane Turpin gave two impressive performances in winning the 500-yard freestyle (4:49.96) and finishing second in the 100-yard butterfly (53.21), 0.1 seconds ahead of junior Brendan Morin. Sophomore Jason Wan earned a win in the 100-yard backstroke.

The women’s team showed its strength in both relay events.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Pham, senior Catherine Rafferty-Millet, junior Meghan Powers and sophomore Allison Siegel put together a time of 1:52.12, 0.44 seconds faster than the closest competitors. Siegel’s anchor leg was 1.05 seconds faster than that of SLU’s second place team.

“Our medley relay did really well, and it can only get faster from here, so that’s exciting,” Pham said.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Jennifer Tartavull, sophomore Paige VanTassell, sophomore Katie Bush and junior Veronica Tse posted a time of 1:42.75 to pick up the win. Three of the four legs swam the fastest times of their strokes, and the team won the event by 1.07 seconds overall.

“I was very impressed with our relay. It is sometimes difficult to get up and go fast at the end of a meet, but I thought we all stepped up and raced as hard as we could,” VanTassell said.

Tartavull also put together an impressive performance in the 100-yard freestyle, as her time of 55.16 came in 1.22 seconds faster than second-place Siegel.

“The freshmen did really well, and I’m very impressed and very excited about the potential of our team this year,” VanTassel said. “I believe our team will do very well. The freshmen are fitting in with the team very well, and I think all of them will be able to contribute a lot. The upperclassmen all returned ready to get back in the pool and train, and it is already paying off. I think we will be able to do big things this year, and I’m very excited!”

The Bears will travel to Columbia, Mo., on Oct. 8 for the Show-Me Showdown, hosted by the University of Missouri.

But can we imagine experiencing the pressure of learning to dive in a collegiate setting, faced with the demand of complex skills? Senior Sarah Kuritzkes can.

At the urging of a friend and captain of the Washington University swimming & diving team, Kuritzkes, who had no prior diving experience, joined the diving squad last season as a junior.

“She told me they needed divers because…we only have three of us, and I’m the only girl,” Kuritzkes said. “So I joined last year and really got into it.”

According to Kurtizkes, the largest hurdle in learning to dive is overcoming mental obstacles. The majority of the diver’s energy may be devoted to new psychological skills, not physical ones.

“[Starting without experience] was really challenging. Diving is 90 percent mental, 10 percent physical, so I think the biggest part about diving is getting over your fear,” Kuritzkes said. “It’s sort of like gymnastics in a sense that there’s always a sense of danger, and overcoming that is one of the biggest things about diving. [But diving] is really fun.”

In total, the Wash. U. diving team consists of three members: Kuritzkes, freshman James DiLorenzo and junior John Rao. Rao also did not intend on joining the team when he began his career as a Wash. U. athlete.

“Originally, I came to Wash. U. to play soccer. After my freshman season and sophomore preseason with the team in 2008 and 2009, I decided to switch to the diving program,” Rao said. “It was a personal decision that really paid off for me. Luckily, I had some experience in high school, so I was able to make the switch fairly easily.”

With a small team, the divers work closely under the direction of coach Meg Dierkes Fisher. According to Rao, typical practices include stretching and overview with the coaching staff before logging around two hours of work on the diving board, a formula that he believes has greatly improved his performance.

“Personally, when I arrived to captain’s practices in the 2009 preseason, after having switched from the soccer team, my skill level was low to say the least,” Rao said. “I owe all my improvement to our coaching staff and the practices they run. Without them, I really wouldn’t be at the level I am today.”

Johann Qua Hiansen | Student Life

The men’s swimming and diving team captured third at the WUSTL Invitational over theweekend. The women’s team dominated their opposition and won the meet.

Freshmen Chi Pham, Allison Siegel and Paige VanTassell each won two individual races and contributed to the Red and Green’s four relay wins. The women’s team racked up 1,038 total points, 200.5 points more than second-place finisher DePauw University.

Pham finished first in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard backstroke; Siegel won the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyles, and VanTassell took the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyles.

Other individual winners for the women included freshman Grace Murray in the 1,650-yard freestyle and freshman Meghan Lam in the 400-yard individual medley.

“The freshmen have a huge impact,” Pham said. “That’s not to say the upperclassmen aren’t awesome. It’s humbling to see their names in the record books. It’s like new blood coming in, and we all feel like we have to step up and make a name for ourselves.”

In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the women’s “B” team of senior captain Micki Duncan, junior Karina Stridh, Murray and freshman Katie Bush completed the race in 3:43.27, .32 seconds better than the Bears’ “A” team. However, since ten minutes are automatically added to a “B” team’s time regardless of the order the team’s finish, the first-place finish went to the Bears’ “A” team of Pham, junior Amy Vanlishout, VanTassell and Siegel.

For the men, senior co-captain David Chao once again led the way with three individual first-place finishes and contributions on all three winning relay teams. Chao won with times of 21.61 in the 50-yard freestyle, 47.06 in the 100-yard freestyle and 1:45.36 in the 200-yard freestyle.

Co-captain Kartik Anjur also swam for all three first-place relay teams and added a first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 52.73. Freshman Jason Wan swam for two winning relay teams and finished first in the 200-yard backstroke, posting a time of 1:59.56.

“I’ve had a great opportunity these past couple of weeks to focus on my kicking, which translated over well into my backstroke and freestyle events this past weekend,” Anjur said. “I was glad we were able to showcase the depth of our team by winning all those relays against some pretty stiff competition.”

Both teams competed on Jan. 7 in a home meet against Lindenwood University and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, where Pham won the 400-yard individual medley for the women and junior Chris Valach won the 1,000-yard freestyle for the men. The Wash. U. men also posted a 124-75 win over Wabash College on Jan. 12, where the Red and Green finished first in seven of 13 events.

The Bears travel to Elsah, Ill. for a meet with Principia College on Friday in their final meet before the University Athletic Association Championships Feb. 16-19.

The Bears recorded victories in three events. Freshman Meghan Lam won the women’s 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:42.75, freshman Grace Murray won the women’s 1,650-yard freestyle in 17:58.61 and senior David Chao won the men’s 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:44.24. Chao also finished second in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle races.

The team returns to action at the Wheaton College Invitational on Dec. 3 in Wheaton, Ill.

“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.