On Saturday, Nov. 1, the No. 10 men’s and No. 14 women’s swim and dive teams took on the No. 4 men’s and No. 8 women’s University of Chicago teams for their Pink Out meet. Both Bears teams ended up losing in a tough matchup against the Maroons, the men falling 131-161 and the women 133-167.

The men’s competition featured five first-place finishes across the swimming events. First-year Parker Chan picked up two wins for the Bears in the 1000-yard and 500-yard freestyles. Chan claimed additional points for the team with a second-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly and was a part of the third-place finish in the 200-freestyle relay. For his impressive all-around performance, Chan was named a University Athletic Association (UAA) Athlete of the Week.

Head coach Brad Shively shared his thoughts on Chan’s success.

“Parker is a talented young man and was very excited to race!” Shively wrote in a statement to Student Life. “He and the rest of the distance group [have] been doing the work and building toward being their best at the end of the year.” 

Jackson Heether, another first-year, got a win for the team in the 50-yard freestyle. Graduate student Mikey Thurk won the 100-yard freestyle, and the final victory came from junior Marco Minai who finished first in the 400-yard individual medley (IM) with a time of 4:08.01. He also came in second in both the 200-yard backstroke and medley relay. 

In the women’s competition, sophomore Iris Qi was involved in all three first-place finishes for the Bears. Individually, she picked up wins in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:56.21 and 100-yard freestyle in 52.73 seconds. Then, in the 200-yard freestyle relay, Qi brought home another first-place alongside junior Izzie Gattone and first-years Ayaan Olasewere and Sarah Cohen.

Shively also described what makes Qi such an important part of the team. “Iris is a talented swimmer and a really strong racer,” he wrote. “She has an intense will to win, is mentally tough, has the ability to rise to pressure situations, and possesses a fierce competitive spirit that pushes her. It was fun to watch her take advantage of her opportunities to post victories for us! 

Across other events, Olasewere had second-place finishes in the 200-yard medley relay and 50-yard freestyle, as did Cohen in the 1000-yard freestyle. 

Junior Shanze Karimi won the 1-meter diving event by 6.25 points over her teammate, sophomore Kate Li.

These performances rounded out an altogether impressive display from both the men’s and women’s first-years in their second collegiate meet, who notched four first-place and nine second-place finishes.   

This was the team’s first meet in over a month since their win over Saint Louis University on Sept. 27 and kicks off a run of meets as their season gets busier. Despite the loss against their UAA rivals, this is only the first meet of the three month lead-up until the conference championships. The Bears’ next weekend features a doubleheader of meets: the Division III Shootout at UChicago on Friday, Nov. 7, and a meet against Indiana University Indianapolis on Saturday, Nov. 8.