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.”

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.”

Senior co-captain Jessie Lodewyk’s NCAA provisional cut in the 1,650-yard freestyle highlighted a strong weekend of Washington University swimming. The men placed fifth while the women took third at the Washington University Thanksgiving Invitational meet on November 20 and 21.

Lodewyk earned the top spot in the mile with a 17:47.25 performance, and took third place in both the 200 and 500-freestyle. “The mile’s a really funny race. Everyone has a different style,” Lodewyk said. “It pushes you to do things differently.”

The Bears’ competition came from several states and NCAA divisions. Teams included Division I University of Evansville, IUPUI, Colorado School of Mines, Hannibal-Lagrange, Saint Louis University (DI), Lindenwood University (DII), Albion College and Ohio Wesleyan University. According to senior captain Alex Beyer, some of the other teams had tapered for the meet, while Wash. U. will wait to do so in preparation for Wheaton.

“[We are at] a tough stage in our schedule…[Wheaton] is our most important meet other than conference and nationals,” Beyer, the winner in the 500 freestyle and runner-up in the 200 breaststroke said.

The men’s squad claimed some of the top spots in the sprint freestyle races. Junior David Chao was third in the 50-freestyle and the top performer in both the 100 and 200 freestyle, while senior captain Dan Arteaga was fourth in the 50 and 100 races. Chao noted that effort in his turns helped in the races.

“It took us awhile to get pumped up,” Chao said. “Our main focus is the meet in two weekends.”

The Bears were successful in distance events. In the men’s heat, sophomore Chris Valach won the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:37.66 and fifth in the 500-freestyle.

Sophomore Karina Stridh and freshman Meg Powers each earned second place finishes for the team, Stridh in the 50 freestyle and Powers in the 200-butterfly. According to Lodewyk, the Bears were boosted by performances from junior Micki Duncan, sophomore Erika Antisdale and sophomore Kerri Blumer. Blumer placed eleventh in the 500-freestyle, an event she normally does not compete in.

“I was really, really excited,” Blumer said of the race. “I’ve been having trouble [in other events], I wanted to switch things up.”

The spirited squad stayed at the meet until the last Wash. U. swimmer, sophomore Evan Dorshorst, finished his mile swim.

“I feel really special…you get the entire team behind you. It definitely pumps you up,” Dorshorst said.

The Bears next competition is the Wheaton Invitational on Dec. 4-5 in Wheaton, Ill. where the Red and Green hope to submit several automatic and provisional qualifying times in various events.

-With additional reporting by Johann Qua Hiansen

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.

“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.

“I thought they did a great job. What you try to do in a meet like this is try to gauge the effectiveness of your training and their intensity throughout the first semester. You hope that you put it together well enough that at least you give them the opportunity to go out and swim fast, and I thought we did,” Head Coach Brad Shively said.

Junior Alex Beyer continued his strong season by breaking three school records and automatically qualifying for nationals in the 500-yard freestyle, 800-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard individual medley. Beyer broke his own record in the 500-free and IM, while his leading leg of the 800-free relay also broke a Wash. U. record.

Freshman Karina Stridh broke a school record and automatically qualified for the NCAAs with a time of 51.19 seconds in the 100-yard freestyle, breaking the school record by .64 seconds. Stridh also broke the school record in 50-yard freestyle and qualified for NCAAs in the 50-free and the 100-yard backstroke.

“He [Shively] was giving us a little bit of a pep talk, and he was saying, ‘Don’t be surprised by greatness.’ I guess that kind of summed up how I felt about a lot of it because I really was surprised by how well I did, but most other people, especially the upperclassmen, know that this is an important meet and get really good times,” Stridh said.

Aside from Beyer and Stridh, all other NCAA-qualifying times were provisional.

On Friday, junior Brian Kushner, freshman Chris Valach, senior Kelly Kono and junior Jessie Lodewyk all provisionally qualified in the 500-freestyle, with Kushner and Lodewyk finishing second in their respective races.

Senior Kevin Leckey and sophomore David Chao took first and second in the 100-freestyle, and junior Dima Galkin and sophomore Michael Flanagan finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard butterfly respectively to also provisionally qualify for nationals, on Friday.

The women saw two other swimmers provisionally qualify for nationals, as sophomores Claire Henderson and Karin Underwood took first and second respectively in the 200-yard backstroke.

The Wash. U. men provisionally qualified in nine more events on Saturday. Leckey won the 50 and 200-freestyle, Chao came in second in both events and Beyer and senior Julian Beattie finished first and second in the 200-breaststroke, respectively. Junior Dan Arteaga and Flanagan also qualified in the 50-freestyle. The last individual qualifier for the men was Valach with a win in the 1,650-yard freestyle.

Three women individually qualified on Saturday, with Kono, Lodewyk and freshman Samantha Schulte taking first, second and third in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Kono also won the 200-yard freestyle, and Henderson took second in the 100-yard backstroke.

The Wash. U. relay teams also made their pushes for nationals this weekend, with teams making the provisional cut. Both the men and women provisionally qualified in the 800-free relay and 400-medly relay. The men and women also qualified in the 400-freestyle relay.

“Their competitive fire really showed. You just can’t prepare for that,” Shively said.

“[For] people who made A cuts, it was quite impressive this year. As far as B cuts go, we always aim to get a couple of relays and individuals, so it’s very good that we did get what we did,” Leckey, a co-captain, said. Leckey explained that in order to gain more control over nationals, the NCAA decreased the automatic qualifying times this season.

While team results at Wheaton were of secondary importance to the team after qualifying individuals for nationals, the Red and Green took second on both the men and women’s sides, losing only to Div. II Grand Valley State University in the seven-team field. Shively explained that since national qualifying times are very fast, the team uses this meet and the UAA Championships as qualifying meets since they have ample time to prepare.

The team will next be in action on Jan. 9 when Wash. U. hosts Lindenwood University in the first of four meets before UAAs. In these meets, the team will look to improve on race strategy and competition level before the UAA Championships on Feb. 11-14.

“We’re going to be in really tough training for the next two months. It’s great because you can still swim fast in season, and it can be very motivating if you do swim fast, but they’re all kind of benchmark meets as you move toward conferences to make sure that you are where you want to be,” Leckey said.