After a three-week hiatus, the Washington University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams swept the Centre College Midwest Classic in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, Oct. 30.

Competing for the first time since Oct. 9, when both teams lost to St. Louis University, the men’s and women’s squads took first at the meet, edging out Washington & Lee University, Centre College, and DePauw University.

“It was hard, in the first couple of meets, to do anything significant to help us to go fast. It was just not enough time, and I felt like we had the opportunity [to train], and we did,” head coach Brad Shively said. “We went to work and had a few weeks of really solid training behind us.”

The women’s team scored 720 points, 86 points higher than second-place finisher DePauw. Freshmen Grace Murray, Chi Pham and Paige VanTassell each took first in pairs of individual events.

“It’s the whole idea of coming to college, coming and stepping it up,” Pham said. “Me, Grace and Paige are pretty good training partners. Both Grace and Paige are really good distance swimmers, and so they pace off each other a lot.”

Pham and VanTassell also competed in the final event of the meet—the 400-yard freestyle relay—with fellow freshman Allison Siegel and junior Amy Vanlishout. The Bears took the top two spots in the race; the “A” relay finished in 3:41.74, ahead of the Bears’ “B” squad, who finished in 3:44.60.

“[The freshmen] certainly are a talented group of young women, and I think that what we’ve seen so far is that they’re also pretty tough, that they’ve been very competitive in races. They’ve really gone after things. I think it’s been a nice spark,” Shively said. “I think a lot of it is the leadership from the upperclassmen, too. You can have a lot of talent, but if you don’t have a great deal of direction, it isn’t going to go where you want to go.”

Senior Karin Underwood, co-captain of the women’s team, placed first in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:12.96 and, with freshman Connie Shao, junior Karina Stridh and senior Claire Henderson, won the 200-medley relay in 1:52.94.

The men’s team, in a much closer contest, finished with 734 points, ahead of Washington & Lee (716), DePauw (697) and Centre (374).

“I thought we had a lot of emotion, a lot of enthusiasm, and once, particularly on the guy’s side, they knew it was close, they really rallied and came through with some really strong swims at the end of the meet,” Shively said.

Seniors David Chao and Michael Flanagan, co-captains of the men’s team, also garnered first-place finishes in two individual races each.

Chao won both the 200-yard freestyle (1:44.98) and the 100-yard freestyle (47.62) while Flanagan took first in the 100-yard butterfly (52.77) and the 200-yard butterfly (1:56.84).

“I was definitely happy with all my results because they were definitely my fastest times this season, and I definitely think that three weeks of training from our last meet was a factor in time, for me, but I also think that the level of competition…was more intense,” Chao said.

Freshman Alex Cox took first in the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:08.56); junior Chris Valach won the 500-yard freestyle (4:52.95), and freshman Tyler Perez won the 200-yard IM (2:01.50).

Chao also swam the final leg of the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay, anchoring the team in a heated race. The team of Chao, freshman Jason Wan, sophomore Mark Minowitz and senior Kartik Anjur took first (3:10.91), securing the Bears’ overall victory in the meet.

“It was us and DePauw battling for first, and each leg there was a lead change,” Chao said. “When I dove in for the anchor leg, we were a little behind, but for me, in the past three years, a lot of my best races have been coming from behind just because I get an extra adrenaline rush from having the team on my shoulders and being able to come up with an ‘underdog’ victory.”

The team will return to Wash. U.’s Millstone Pool on Saturday, Nov. 6 to host a dual meet with conference rival University of Chicago. The meet begins at 1 p.m.

“It’s actually our only UAA dual meet of the season, so we want to definitely come out on top for this one. It’s going to be a really close meet, so we’re looking forward to the challenge ahead of us,” Chao said.