After their yearly winter-break trip to Florida, the Bears took part in a pair of meets over break. On Wednesday, Jan. 11, the men’s team headed to Crawfordsville, Ill., and handled Wabash College by a score of 182-94. The Bears were victorious in 12 of the meet’s 14 swimming events.

Freshman Zane Turpin’s three individual victories (in the 500- and 1000-yard freestyle and the 200-yard butterfly) led the way for the Bears, with sophomore Brian Carpenter (victories in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke) and junior Brendan Morin (50-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly) chipping in two apiece as well.

Only two days later, the men’s and women’s teams took part in their final home meet of the year, the Washington University Invitational. The women’s team finished as the runner-up out of seven teams, with the men’s team coming in third place in a field of eight schools.

Despite not pulling any first-place finishes, the men’s team was competitive in several events. In distance events, freshman Luke Dobben and senior Chris Valach took second and third in the 500-yard freestyle, and Dobben also finished second in the 1650-yard freestyle. Carpenter claimed second place in the 100-yard breaststroke, Turpin was runner-up in the 200-yard butterfly and 400-yard individual medley, and senior Billy Griffitts took second in the 100-yard backstroke.

The women’s team was paced by four winners: freshman Sara Taege in the 500 freestyle, sophomore Jennifer Tartavull in the 100 freestyle, sophomore Grace Murray in the 1650 freestyle, and sophomore Allison Siegel in the 50 freestyle. The women’s 200-, 400- and 800-yard freestyle relays all took second place, and the 200-yard medley relay of sophomore Chi Pham, senior Catherine Rafferty-Millett, Murray and Tartavull took third place.

Wash. U. will travel to Elsah, Ill., on Friday to face Principia College at 6 p.m.

Track teams win seven events at Titan Opener

The men’s and women’s indoor track teams had their first meet of the new year on Saturday at the Titan Opener hosted at Illinois Wesleyan University. While the meet was not scored, both teams put forth a number of quality performances.

The women’s team was highlighted by a school-record performance by senior Elizabeth Phillips—her 1:35.78 in the 600-meter—and a first-place finish in the pole vault (at 3.51 meters) from University Athletic Association Athlete of the Week sophomore Anna Etherington. Freshman Lucy Cheadle and sophomore Katy Barron went one-two in the one-mile run, and senior Erica Jackey took first in the 3000-meter run.

On the men’s side, senior Tyler Jackson’s time of 7.66 in the 55-meter hurdles not only won him the event but also helped him gain UAA Athlete of the Week honors. Sophomore Arthur Townsend took the 400-meter dash in 50.83 seconds, and the Bears took second and third in the 4×400 meter relay. Senior Justin Pieper tied for first in the high jump at 2.00 meters.

The Bears will be racing again in Bloomington this Saturday at the Illinois Wesleyan Triangular Meet, which begins at 11 a.m.

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.

The Bears produced two NCAA automatic qualifying cuts and 20 NCAA provisionally qualifying cuts, nine of which would have qualified for the 2010 NCAA Championships.

The official qualifying times for the 2011 NCAA Division III Championships will be relased on Mar. 8.

Even though the women finished fourth and the men finished fifth out of seven teams in the UAA and watched rival Emory University run away with the meet on both sides, the teams looked on the brighter side in their evaluation.

“We weren’t disappointed, far from disappointed actually,” senior David Chao said. “Every guy gave it his all….We wanted to [finish in the] top two, but we were the smallest team in the UAA, and depth really matters here. Having the smallest team is a disadvantage here, but I think everyone brought something to the table, and we were really happy.”

Like he has all season, Chao shined for the Bears. He tied for second in the 50-yard freestyle and was a part of the second-place 200 freestyle relay on Thursday. On Friday, he followed with second place in the 200-freestyle and was a part of the second-place 200-medley relay and the second-place 800-freestyle relay.

He was also a member of the second-place 400-freestyle relay and finally broke through with a win in his last individual event, the 100 freestyle.

“I was sick and tired of getting second to Emory,” Chao said. “My goal was to hold back the Emory guys, and they were second and third. It was my last event, so it had to be good…luckily, things turned out in my favor, and I was happy with the way the race went. It was a lifetime best for me, and it has a great shot at qualifying for nationals.”

Sophomore Brendan Morin set a new Wash. U. record, finishing first in the 100 butterfly on Friday with a time of 49.87 seconds, a time that would have qualified in the championship meet in 2010.

Senior Kartik Anjur wrapped up the individual events Friday with a win and new school record in the 100 backstroke. His time of 51.02 seconds was 0.04 faster than his school record, set at the Wheaton Invitational earlier this season, and also would have qualified for nationals in 2010.

Freshman Chi Pham once again led the way for the women’s team. Pham swam NCAA-qualifying times in two events, won one race, and set provisional times in five other events, en route to being named UAA Rookie of the Year.

“It’s really great, and I’m really happy,” Pham said when asked about the honor. “It’s tradition for the male and female Rookies of the Year to kiss, but that didn’t happen. Bummer!”

On Thursday, Pham was one of four women to break the UAA record in the 200-individual medley, but she finished in second after leading most of the way. Carnegie Mellon’s Molly Evans swam a strong final leg to take the race.

“[Evans] really came out of nowhere,” Pham said. “I didn’t see her coming. She had an amazing last 50. I guess there’s always next time.”

Pham got her win in the 100 backstroke on Friday, where she broke away from UAA record-holder Jackie Schneider of Emory in the last 50 yards. The two had identical times in the first 50 yards, but Pham prevailed by 0.12 seconds. Her final time of 56.88 seconds was an NCAA “A” cut.

“I was kind of surprised to win in the backstroke,” Pham said. “The only thing I was thinking about was finishing as hard as I could. I really couldn’t believe I won.”

The school record in the 200-freestyle relay fell on Thursday thanks to a second-place swim from junior Karina Stridh, freshman Allison Siegel, Pham and junior Amy Vanlishout. Their time of 1:36.49 was good for an NCAA “B” cut.

The Bears travel to Chicago next weekend for the Midwest Invitational, their final chance to set qualifying times for the March 23-26 NCAA Division III Championships.

The women sit in third out of seven teams while the men are in fourth place.

Both teams have already contributed some strong performances.

The men’s and women’s ‘A’ 200-yard freestyle relay teams finished second to Emory University. The women’s team of junior Katrina Stridh, freshman Allison Siegel, freshman Chi Pham and junior Amy Vanlishout finished 1.98 seconds behind, while the men’s team of senior David Chao, sophomore Mark Minowitz, senior Kartik Anjur and sophomore Brendan Morin finished 1.12 seconds back.

With the second place finish, the women’s team broke a school record and set a provisionally qualifying time for the 2011 NCAA Division III Championships on Mar. 23.

Pham recorded a 2:05.36 in the 200-yard individual medley and led most of the way, but fell just .03 seconds short of first place Molly Evans of Carnegie Mellon University in a race where four swimmers finished faster than the UAA record time and automatically qualified for the national championships.

Chao tied for second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.93, .48 seconds off the winning pace.

Emory University has built a commanding lead in the points’ standings for both men’s and women’s sides. Competition resumes at 10 a.m. (EST). (Sahil Patel)

Johann Qua Hiansen | Student Life

Three Washington University women’s swimmers leap off the blocks for their heat at the WU Invitational on Jan. 14. The Lady Bears took first place this past Friday against Principia College.

The men won 106-86, and the women triumphed 119-56 to complete the sweep. The two teams combined to win 14 of 25 races held at the meet.

“It was a meet that we have done the last handful of years,” head coach Brad Shively said. “Usually we go from meet to meet to meet that are all pretty serious leading up to UAAs [conference championships], and we are swimming our best events, and results are the most important thing. This is a meet where [our swimmers] have an opportunity to try and swim events they usually don’t. We take this seriously from an effort standpoint.”

Once again, the freshman class swam strongly, contributing to or individually capturing seven of the Red and Green’s total victories.

“The freshmen are a very talented group and also work extremely hard,” senior co-captain Kartik Anjur said. “Their success is not surprising, but my job as a captain is to make sure they stay positive and focused over the long season as well as help them adjust to swimming on the collegiate level.”

Starting the meet with the 200-yard medley relay, the four women’s teams took the race’s top four spots. The winning team of sophomore Veronica Tse, senior Claire Henderson, freshman Shelby Tarkenton and senior Micki Duncan finished in 2:00.13.

In the next event, the Wash. U. men accomplished the same feat, as all three teams took the top three positions in the 200-yard medley relay, led by the team of junior Chris Valach, freshman Tyler Perez, freshman Alex Cox and sophomore Brendan Morin.

Tse also finished first in the 100-yard freestyle.

On the men’s side, Anjur won the 100-yard freestyle in 49.07 seconds, almost two seconds faster than his closest competitor.

Another sweep for the men came in the 200-yard freestyle, where freshman Chi Pham continued her standout season with a time of 1:58.01, 3.79 seconds ahead of the competition.

Perez won the men’s 200-freestyle competition, posting a 1:50.32. Freshman Brian Carpenter also finished first in the 1,000-yard freestyle, winning with a time of 11:19.73.

Senior David Chao continued his string of dominant performances with a first-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley, posting a time of 2:02.70.

In one of six events in which the Bears won both the men’s and women’s races, freshman Jason Wan and junior Amy Vanlishout won the 50-yard freestyle for the men and women, respectively.

Also for the women, freshman Katie Bush followed up an impressive performance as the anchor for the “B” 400-yard freestyle relay last week with a first-place finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Senior Karin Underwood won the women’s 200-individual medley in 2:15.85.

Senior Catherine Rafferty-Millett won the 100-yard butterfly in 1:01.55.

“A lot of kids, I think everybody, had strong meets,” Shively said. “It’s hard to have expectations [for a meet like this]. As a coach you don’t do that. They went after it hard; they were aggressive with it, and that’s a big positive. We had some people that had really strong times in events they don’t usually swim. It was fun to watch.”

Beginning with the 100-yard backstroke events, Wash. U. swam their races as exhibitions, giving the points to Principia. As a result, Principia recorded first-place finishes in each of the last nine events, despite swimming slower times than the Bears.

“Racing and having fun is important,” Shively said. “It ended up not being as close as I had thought it would. We exhibitioned the last few events, so we didn’t count the scores and gave them the points. It’s just a fun meet, and the kids look forward to it.”

With almost a month ahead without meets, the Bears will now prepare for the UAA Championships in Rochester, N.Y., which will be held from February 16 to 19. The swimmers will use this break as an opportunity to improve their individual and team times in order to qualify for the March 23-26 NCAA Division III Championships in Knoxville, Tenn.

“We are working on a lot of details during the next few weeks, [like] starts, turns, pacing, speed work [and] stroke mechanics as much as possible. We had a great practice Saturday morning at roughly the same time as we would have to do it at conference,” Shively said.

“Conference is a really taxing thing, and until you have the feeling of doing it again and again, it’s hard. We want to make sure everyone is comfortable. We’ve got three weeks to go until conference, so we’ll just continue working.”

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.

Traveling to Illinois for the Wheaton Invitational, the No. 10 women’s team finished first of five teams, topping the second-place and No. 9 University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point by 14 points. The No. 6 men’s team finished second of five teams, falling short of No. 17 Wisconsin-Stevens Point by 197.5 points.

The Red and Green combined for a huge event, with the men tallying six first-place finishes and the women achieving four. Together, they met Division III provisional qualifying benchmarks in seven events.

“I really wanted us to get an honest gauge of how our fall semester had gone,” head coach Brad Shively said. “I wanted us to get some fast swims and some NCAA qualifying standards and hopefully some momentum…. At some events, we didn’t have as many bodies in there, but they were still able to put up some points. They knew they were close, and they swam tough.”

For the women, freshman Chi Pham played a part in each of the first-place finishes. Individually, she won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:08.15 and the 100-yard backstroke in 57.99, both NCAA provisional times.

“I wanted to go for my national times for the meet, and I had to really make the effort,” Pham said. “Everyone was doing really well, and my coaches really helped me a lot along the way.”

Pham was also part of the first-place 400-yard medley relay team with senior Claire Henderson, sophomore Meghan Powers and freshman Allison Siegel, as well as the first-place 400-yard freestyle relay team with sophomore Veronica Tse, freshman Paige VanTassell and Siegel. The 400-freestyle was the last event for the women’s team, and the first-place finish by 1.43 seconds over the Pointers sealed the win.

“Going into the 400-free relay, we weren’t sure if we were up or down, but we knew that we had to do well,” Pham said. “We knew it was going to take a huge swim from all of us because we were the third seed for the race. We had to step it up if we wanted to win, and we all did. Siegel, the anchor, was the champion.”

Senior David Chao led the men’s team, who finished first in four events. Chao won the 100-yard freestyle in 45.62, an NCAA provisional time, and the 200-yard freestyle in 1:41.76, good for an NCAA “B” cut.

“We decreased yardage going up to the meet, so my legs felt really rested,” Chao said. “It worked out really well for me; I felt great.”

Chao finished .06 seconds shy of an NCAA provisional time in the 50-yard freestyle with his first-place time of 21.05. He, along with sophomore Mark Minowitz, senior Kartik Anjur and junior Chris Valach, swam the 800-yard freestyle relay in 6:53.08, good for first place and an NCAA provisional standard.

“The wins were great,” Chao said. “We know that there’s still a lot more work that needs to be done if we want to be a national contending team. We definitely showed that we have the capability and potential of being a great team.”

The swimming and diving teams return to action on Friday, Jan. 7, at home against Lindenwood University and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Lindenwood has won two meets this season and finished third in the Washington University Thanksgiving Invitational, while SIUC is coming off the USA Senior Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, last weekend.

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.

Ben Gottesdiener | Student Life

Freshman Rick Chopp swims to a fifth place finish in the 200-yard butterfly against the University of Chicago on Nov. 6.

Both the men’s and women’s teams were coming off victories over three schools at the Centre College Midwest Classic on Oct. 30.

The men’s side, facing a Chicago squad that finished third in the UAA last year, jumped out to a huge lead that it would never relinquish. In a meet that was expected to be closer than it was, captain David Chao, a senior, said that Chicago’s team was not as big as the Bears had anticipated.

“Numbers-wise, it was closer than we had thought. Usually their team outnumbers us by a lot, but this time we outnumbered them by a bit,” Chao said. “It’s not that we had a couple of good breaks, we just had a spectacular meet.”

Chao, who was named UAA men’s swimming and diving athlete of the week, finished first in three events. He recorded season-best times in the 50-yard freestyle (21.51) and 100-yard freestyle (47.59) and anchored the men’s 400-yard medley relay to open the meet, along with senior Kartik Anjur, freshman Brian Carpenter and senior Michael Flanagan.

“They were both best in-season times for me, so [I] can’t complain about that. Comparable to last year, my 50 [yard freestyle time] has been a lot faster, and I can definitely feel that,” said Chao, who cited extra weight lifting in the offseason as a key to his success in the event. “I feel stronger in the water.”

The men also received winning performances from junior Mike Rao, who placed first in both the 1-meter diving (219.80) and the 3-meter diving (251.20) events; freshman Alex Cox, who took the 500 (4:52.47) and 1,000-yard freestyle (10:11.58); and Anjur, who placed first with a season-best time in the 200-yard freestyle (1:46.06).

The women’s side suffered a narrow defeat against the Maroons, despite what the team described as a strong meet. The freshman class led the way for the Bears, as Chi Pham took first in the 400-yard individual medley (4:40.66) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:27.49) while Paige VanTassell took the 200 (1:57.79) and 500-yard freestyle (5:14.70).

Chicago gained much of its separation from the Bears in the two diving events. Chicago took first, second and third in both events, and the 30-point swing from diving made a significant difference in the outcome of the meet.

“They got 32 points from diving, and we got 2, so we knew we would be down, and we had to make up those points,” said captain Claire Henderson, a senior, who swam backstroke in the fourth-place 400-yard medley relay (4:11.45) and finished fifth in the 50-yard freestyle (26.57). “The freshmen did a great job; they went fast and won a lot of races and edged a lot of people out.”

With the Bears ahead 55-38 going into 1-meter diving, Chicago took the lead for good when the Maroons claimed the top three diving spots and the 200-yard butterfly. Wash. U. got as close as five points away after that, but Chicago closed out the meet with a first-place finish in the final 400-yard freestyle relay.

“The score itself doesn’t really indicate how close the meet was,” head coach Brad Shively said. “It just kind of swung back and forth, and then with them winning the last relay….It wasn’t due to our swimming; I thought we really stepped it up. All the credit goes to those guys. They just beat us.”

With no meet this weekend, the Bears’ next competition will be the Washington University Thanksgiving Invitational on Nov. 20-21. At this point in the season, both teams are prepared for an increase in yardage at practice.

“We’re going to have the height of our yardage in practice, swimming the most, training the most,” Henderson said. “I think everyone’s pumped about it, especially us, after our close meet this weekend. It’s just a lot more endurance and time consuming, so these practices will help prepare us for that meet.”