Men’s Basketball

After heading to Bloomington, Ill., to face Illinois Wesleyan University this upcoming Saturday, the Bears will be off until Dec. 30, when they will meet up and travel to Elmhurst, Ill., to take on Elmhurst College. They will come back to Wash. U. on Jan. 7 of the new year to take on conference rival University of Chicago in a match that begins University Athletic Association play for the Bears. Wash. U. will be on the road on the final weekend of break, traveling to Cleveland on Jan. 13 and Pittsburgh on Jan. 15 to face Case Western Reserve University and Carnegie Mellon University, respectively.

Women’s Basketball

The Bears will take on familiar rival Webster University on Saturday and will compete in Waverly, Iowa, on Dec. 29-30 in the Wartburg Holiday Tournament (hosted by Wartburg College), but their marquee matchup over break will be the one against Chicago on Jan. 7 at the Washington University Field House. Chicago, currently ranked No. 2 in the nation, got the best of the Bears in both regular season matchups—snapping a 40-game home win streak on Senior Day last year—before Wash. U. got revenge in the regional final round of the NCAA tournament. The game will be the biggest test of the season to date for the Bears, who will also close out their break with trips to CMU and Case Western.

Swimming and Diving

The swimming and diving teams will take their yearly winter break trip to Bradenton, Fla., for a team training and bonding session, before coming back to the Midwest in the week before the spring semester starts. Only the men’s team will go to Crawfordsville, Ind., to face Wabash College on Jan. 11, before both squads have their only home meet of the season. The Washington University Invitational will take place on Jan. 13-14 and will bring in teams from around the area and region.

Track and Field

With one meet already on the books, the track and field teams will be training on their own over break. They will head back to the site of their first meet—Bloomington, Ill.—on Jan. 14, where they will take part in the Illinois Wesleyan Double Dual Meet.

Jilian Fenton | Student Life

Sophomore Kara Gordon competes against DePauw on Saturday, Oct. 29. The women’s team scored a 168-126 victory.

The women’s side won 11 events overall, with sophomores Chi Pham and Meghan Lam taking two victories each. Pham won the 200-yard freestyle (1:58.98) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:10.94), while Lam finished first in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.99) and 200-yard backstroke (2:12.86).

“Chi and Meghan have been working really hard and been very focused, and it made a difference in how they swam this weekend,” head coach Brad Shively said. “Chi was able to swim against one of the best breaststrokers in the nation, and it was really good for her to get that experience in.”

The Bears swept the 200-yard butterfly and the 50-yard freestyle as well. Freshman Sara Taege, sophomore Grace Murray and freshman Hannah Chase took first, second and third respectfully in the 200-yard butterfly. This was Taege’s first career victory (2:13.75).

“The women’s team swam really well, out touching their opponents and working really hard for each win,” said Pham.

Jilian Fenton | Student Life

Freshman Michael Postetter competes against DePauw on Saturday, Oct. 29. The men’s team lost 173-120.

“Jenn swam really well winning the 50 free,” Pham said. “She didn’t swim with us last year, but she came in this year and has stepped up and become a dominant player, being one of our strongest sprinters.”

In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the women’s side picked up a win as Tartavull, Taege, senior Amy Vanlishout and sophomore Paige VanTassell beat out the closest competitors by 5.14 seconds.

Also earning victories were senior Catherine Rafferty-Millett in the 100-yard butterfly, VanTassell in the 500-yard freestyle, Murray in the 1,000-yard freestyle and Tartavull in the 100-yard freestyle.

“The women brought great effort, and it happened immediately taking the medley relay,” Shively said. “We wanted to start that meet off with a bang, and we kept gaining momentum and taking victories. We can’t rest on it or become complacent, but it was a great step for them to have good swims across the board.”

The men’s side fell short to a much stronger men’s DePauw team comprised of a handful of strong freshman and a few national swimmers.

“The DePauw’s men’s team is much better than their women’s,” Pham said. “Our men’s team is very young, as we lost some strong swimmers last year. The younger guys are stepping up and trying to fill those gaps, and they are doing really well.”

Sophomore Jason Wan and senior Mike Rao led the team. Wan captured two events in the 100-yard backstroke (54.88) and the 200-yard backstroke (1:59.34), and Rao won the one- and three-meter diving competitions. Freshman Zane Turpin also captured a victory in the 200-yard butterfly.

“We had some really great swims and definitely did better than previously,” Shively said. “Our distance guys, backstrokers and flyers did a lot better. It was a really good thing to face strong competition, as we haven’t seen any strong Division III competition yet. It was a good reminder to keep working and get stronger and get better.”

The Bears head to Chicago on Saturday, Nov. 5, to face UAA rival University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology. With only a week to prepare for one of the stronger teams in the conference, the team is going to work hard this coming week.

“Chicago is going to be our first in-conference meet, and they have a lot of depth,” Pham said. “We need to remember for Chicago that every race counts and focus on beating the person next to you. It will be a good meet; we are very pumped about it.”

“The fact that eight people came and eight people are All-Americans is a big deal,” head coach Brad Shively said. “You take for granted that you are a good swimmer, but the fact is that every swimmer here is a good swimmer. It is difficult to [be an All-American]. You can’t take for granted an All-America performance. It is probably the thing that makes me proudest.”

The men’s side finished in 16th place Knoxville, Tenn., their ninth straight top-20 finish, while the women finished in 24th place, their ninth straight top-25 finish.

“I am proud that we have been able to get people to the actual meet,” Shively said. “The girls only had two swimmers and still made the top-25. The point is that you have to score. It’s a testament to them that they did so well. We’ve got to get more people here, and we need to do better, but I’m not disappointed. I think we did our very best.”

The men opened the Championships with a bang, earning seventh-place in the 200-yard medley relay. The team of senior Kartik Anjur, freshman Brian Carpenter, sophomore Brendan Morin and senior David Chao posted a time of 1:31.95, good for a new Wash. U. record.

Morin shined the next day, shaving .15 seconds off his school-record time in the 100-yard butterfly. He posted a time of 49.72, good for 13th place, to become the first men’s swimmer in Wash. U. history to earn All-America honors in the event.

Anjur was the star on day three, earning two All-America honors on the day. He broke his own school record in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 49.85 and finished tenth overall. The 800-yard freestyle relay team of Chao, Anjur, sophomore Mark Minowitz and junior Chris Valach finished ninth overall with a time of 6:42.62, the ninth-straight All-America finish in the event for the Bears.

The fourth day belonged to Chao who ended his tenure at Wash. U. with 14 All-America distinction after a 12th place finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 45.28.

Chao then closed out the meet for the Red and Green by swimming as the anchor of the 400-yard freestyle relay. Minowitz, Anjur and Morin kept the Bears neck and neck with Middlebury College until Chao swam a 44.54-second anchor leg to win the consolation final.

“Winning the consolation final in the relay last night, the guys getting really into their heats, Kartik Anjur having the great 100-back, Chao with the lifetime bests, each one of those is a big deal,” Shively said.

The women were led once again by freshman Chi Pham, who earned two All-America honors. Her first came with a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, where her school-record-breaking time of 56.09 seconds was only .88 seconds behind the winner.

“That morning, I had already had a [personal]-best time, so I was pretty stoked,” Pham said. “I was going out pretty slow in the morning, so in the finals, I tried to fix what was going on in the morning. I was just pumped to be in the top eight.”

Pham’s second All-America swim came when she won the consolation final in the 200-yard individual medley. Although she swam the seventh-best time in the final round, Pham finished ninth overall.

Freshman Grace Murray was the only other competitor for the Wash. U. women at the meet, and she earned All-America honors in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Murray’s time of 17:12.99 was a personal best and good for 10th place.

“It was going into my last race of the season, and I got seeded in a good lane. My goal was to do better than I did at conference, and it worked out well,” Murray said.

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams finished their seasons ranked 13th and 12th in the nation, respectively.

Mary Butkus | WUSTL Photo Services

Freshman Jonathan Hinds swims on Oct. 9, 2010 in a meet against Saint Louis University at Millstone Pool.

“Just for us to have that level of competition was awesome for our team, at this point, and I think that the swims that we did get bode really well for people doing even better in the future,” said senior Karin Underwood, the women’s team captain.

The Billikens edged out both the men’s and women’s teams on Saturday, Oct. 9, winning 124-118 and 124-115, respectively. It was the Bears’ first dual meet this season.

“I thought we were really competitive this weekend. Overall, we were able to race at a high level, not that the times were super fast or that we were able to match [the competition’s] speed,” said head coach Brad Shively. “Everybody really stepped up, and there was a lot of spirit out there.”

Both teams captured first place in six of the total 13 races, as senior David Chao, captain of the men’s team, led the way with two freestyle race victories and a win in the 400-yard medley relay.

Chao, who was swimming for the first time this season after recovering from a shoulder injury, placed first in the 50-yard freestyle (21.72), the 100-yard freestyle (48.10) and the relay with freshmen Jason Wan and Brian Carpenter and fellow senior Michael Flanagan (3:34.77).

“I was nervous about how my shoulder would react at the meet, and I didn’t want to aggravate it any more, but the adrenaline took over at the meet, and I didn’t feel any pain,” he said. “I was happy with my results.”

The Bears swept both the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 200-yard breaststroke, with freshman Grace Murray and junior Chris Valach taking first in the freestyle and junior Catherine Rafferty-Millett and freshman Tyler Perez taking first in the breaststroke.

For the women’s team, junior Karina Stridh, freshmen Chi Pham and Allison Siegel and sophomore Meghan Powers won in the 400-yard medley (4:03.13), while Underwood won the 200-yard backstroke (2:13.69), and freshman Paige VanTassell won the 500-yard freestyle (2:34.11).

Despite the loss, the teams were impressed by the freshmen’s results and abilities.

“You can’t predict whether or not somebody is going to be really competitive in a race environment, and so I think that’s been one of the nice surprises: to see how competitive [the freshmen] are as a group,” Shively said. “They were competing out there, and they were trying to win races, and that feels really good.”

Already this season, the teams have faced off with high-caliber competition, in the Show-Me Showdown on Oct. 2, against Division I and Division II teams. However, the Bears noted that this early in the season, conditioning and fitness are not up to par.

“We know we can get ourselves into better condition, but it’s hard to have that edge, and I think swimming against really good competition very early shows that because you have to have it to stay in some of these races,” Shively said. “That’s what we look for. It’s more than results at the beginning of the year.”

The Bears return to action on Saturday, Oct. 30, against Centre College, DePauw University and Washington and Lee University in Louisville, Ky. The meet is set to begin at 2 p.m EDT.

“We’re definitely still building ourselves up, and we all, individually, have some work to do, but I think that the results [against SLU] honestly showed that we’re going to be a really deep team and a really strong team, and that we have the potential to really take it to all of our competition,” Underwood said.

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