The men’s and women’s swim and dive teams both fell to Wayne State Friday, Jan. 20, in the final meet of the regular season.
The men’s team lost 168-119, and the women’s team fell to the Warriors 173-127.
Sophomore Amanda Thielen, sophomore Lydia Mattar, freshman Alexa Bloom, and junior Melanie Soenksen started the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay. The team edged out Wayne State by nearly three-tenths of a second with a time of 1:47.13.
Thielen continued the meet by placing first in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:07.23. Teammate Rebeca Martinez placed second in the event. The junior posted a time of 2:07.63.
Thielen finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 59.11.
Martinez won the other two individual events she took part in, the 200-yard IM and the 200-yard butterfly.
Soenksen also placed well in her two individual events. She took first place in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.76 and second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 53.54.
Mattar won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:05.43. Her relay teammate Alexa Bloom won the 100-yard butterfly, timing out at 58.47.
Thielen praised the team’s performance after the meet and discussed how the team will plan for the upcoming GLIAC Championships.
“I think we had an exceptional performance against Wayne State,” Thielen said. “As a young team, we went in with a strong mentality in order to face a much more established team.”
Junior Shaun Yap led the men’s team with three total event wins.
Yap won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 55.23. He swam a 2:02.45 in the 200-yard breaststroke, winning by a narrow margin.
Sophomore Michael Spears, sophomore Shijie Ng, and freshman Christopher Allen joined Yap as the relay team took first in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:26.34.
Sophomore Tyler Miller won the 200-yard IM, timing out at 2:04.81.
Peter Lin won the 200-yard freestyle to go along with a handful of second place placings. He edged out Wayne State in the freestyle by a little over a second with a time of 1:43.02.
After the meet, senior Tanner Peltier said the team went into the meet knowing it would be a tough one. Even with the loss, the team made a statement.
“The team definitely knew what we were going up against when we walked into the meet Friday, but not a single person backed down,” Peltier said.
Peltier went on to discuss the upcoming GLIAC Championships, which Saginaw Valley is hosting from Feb. 8 until Feb. 11, and how the team will prepare for that.
“For the Championships, we start up what’s called a taper, where we cut out morning practices and start resting up to hopefully solidify our spot as one of the top swimming programs in the GLIAC and later on the year at NCAA Championships.”
