COURTESY OF JOHN TRIEBEThe men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams returned from the UAA Championships at Emory with UAA Coaching Staff of the Year and UAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year honors, championships in several events and multiple national qualifiers, making the journey to Atlanta well worth the trip.
The women finished second with a score of 634 and the men finished third with 465, with neither squad moving from the positions they were in on the first day of the tournament. The host, Emory University, took home both the men’s and women’s UAA titles.
One of the most impressive performances of the weekend was sophomore Jennifer Scott, who won the 500 free on Thursday with a time of 4:59.82, the 200 free on Friday with a time of 1:53.86, and the 100 free on Saturday with a time of 52.52. These championship times qualified her for the NCAA National Championships in March and led to her being named the UAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year.
“Overall, everybody swam really well,” said Scott. “…I can’t even describe it, it was awesome.”
Scott was not the only woman with a stellar performance, as fellow sophomore Allie Boettger won the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:23.67. The time shattered the Washington University record and earned Boettger a qualifying spot in Nationals. Boettger and Scott joined forces with fellow sophomores Amelia Stiles and Nora Ames in the 200 medley relay which also qualified for Nationals with a time of 1:50.25.
“I was just really proud of our team for doing so well,” said Scott. “So many other swimmers had such great swims that it completely got me pumped up to swim. It was great to see us interacting as a team like that.”
The men’s team also experienced success, both individually and as a team. Things definitely picked up for the men after winning their first conference title in the 800 free relay. Sophomore Eric Triebe, freshman David Stein, sophomores Cory Zimmerman and Mike Slavik combined for a school record time of 6:50.27.
“The highlight for me was watching the 800 free relay,” said sophomore Alex Antilla. “I wasn’t in it, but the momentum… We were kind of a little sluggish going into that, but those four guys really picked it up and contributed to what we were trying to accomplish.”
“We definitely got a lot more excited after that and started swimming really well,” Triebe said.
Slavik broke two school records on Friday in the 100 backstroke (51.94) and the 200 free (1:41.44), both times qualifying him for Nationals. On Saturday, he broke his fourth school record of the meet in the 200 backstroke with a qualifying time of 1:52.45. The time broke the record he had just set in the preliminary heat. While Slavik can certainly be happy with his performance in the meet, he was more concerned with the team’s performance.
“Our main goal was to try and get as many people as possible to nationals and as many personal bests as possible,” said Slavik. “We were definitely able to accomplish that.”
Triebe also had a successful weekend, with a personal best qualifying time in the 100 free (46.03). He earned second place in the 50 free on Thursday, with a time of 21.29.
Both teams are now geared up to begin training for the Nationals, which will be on March 11-13 in St. Peters, MO for the women and on March 18-20 for the men, also in St. Peters, MO.
“As a team, we’re trying to stay in the top ten, if not do better than the top ten we got last year,” said Slavik. “Personally, I’d like to make it back to finals in a couple of events and maybe make it to an All American individual status. The main goal is for the whole team to repeat some of the awesome performances we had at conferences.”
“There’s a lot of fast teams in our conference and a lot of fast swims,” said Triebe. “It’s good because when we get to nationals we’re going to be more prepared for it.”