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 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.