The Bears also earned first place overall, with the combined men’s and women’s score of 1,586.5.
“They showed a lot of grit this weekend,” Head Coach Brad Shively said.
The Wash. U. women started off strong, with sophomores Claire Henderson and Karin Underwood and freshmen Catherine Rafferty-Millett and Karina Stridh grabbing second in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:52.16. Senior Kelly Kono, freshman Samantha Schulte, junior Jessie Lodewyk and freshman Amy VanLishout captured first through fourth places in the 500-yard freestyle event.
Underwood then took first in the 200-yard backstroke, Stridh took the 100-freestyle and Underwood, Schulte, Valishout and Lodewyk won the 800-yard freestyle relay to give Wash. U. the lead after day one.
Day two featured much of the same, with Lodewyk and Schulte earning both first and second in the 1,650-yard freestyle, swimming respective times of 17:52.08 and 17:54.56. The Bears also finished first in the 400-meter freestyle relay, clinching first place in the last event.
“I think it was a really nice way to wrap up our last home meet of the year,” Kono, a co-captain, said. “I was just really proud that the girls’ team stepped it up and won the meet. We lost by 10 points to DePauw University at the beginning of the season.”
The Wash. U. men proved to be equally competitive, with senior Kevin Leckey, juniors Alex Beyer and Dan Arteaga and sophomore David Chao out-touching Lindenwood University in the very first event to snatch second place by 0.59 seconds.
Beyer and freshman Chris Valach raced first and second in the 500-yard freestyle, as the men also took a day-one lead in the meet.
On day two, senior Charles Stewart, Leckey, Arteaga and Chao took the 200-meter freestyle relay, Beyer took the 400-meter individual medley and Chao took the 200-meter freestyle. The Bears ended the meet with a victory over Missouri S&T in the 400-meter freestyle relay but finished in second place for the meet by more than 100 points.
“I was just happy about how competitive they were this weekend,” Shively said.
The team finishes the regular season with a dual meet against Principia College on Friday. The Bears then travel to the University of Chicago for the UAA Championship meet on Feb. 11-14 before the Midwest Invitational and finally the NCAA Championship meet.
“I hope it did a lot for their confidence…I’m very excited about UAAs,” Shively said.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
WU SWIMMING
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