The SVSU men’s and women’s swim and dive teams each posted wins Saturday afternoon at home. The men’s team defeated Ashland 184-103, while the women collected a pair of wins against both Ashland and Hillsdale, 217-74 and 214-80, respectively.
Junior Amanda Thielen led the women’s team, winning all four of her events for the day, including the 200 medley relay, 1000 freestyle, 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke. Sophomore Alexa Bloom was right on her heels, taking the top place in three of her four events and taking second place in her other event. Junior Lydia Mattar contributed first, second and third place finishes. Both Bloom and Mattar joined Thielen in recording the day’s fastest time in the 200 medley relay.
Sophomore Wilhelmina Francisco took first place in both the women’s 1 and 3 meter diving, with scores of 238.85 and 299.20, respectively. Francisco separated herself in the 3 meter diving, with her 299.20 score outscoring second place freshman Elizabeth Caird by 67.8 points.
“We were much stronger today than we were last weekend against Wayne State,” Mattar said. “Also, it was the senior’s last home duel meet tonight so that was an extra motivator to swim fast and win the meets. There were a lot of great swims and close finishes which made the meet so exciting.”
On the men’s side, freshman Kyle Amick led with wins in each of his four events, including the 200 medley relay, 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle relay. Senior Shaun Yap took first place in three out of his four events, falling only in the 200 individual medley and topping the 200 medley relay, 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke. Junior Dalton Pokley posted two first-place finishes in the 200 medley relay and 100 butterfly and junior Peter Lin posted first, second and third place finishes.
Sophomore Kevin Aziz and freshman Justin Ott swapped first and second place finishes in men’s diving, with Aziz taking first in the 3 meter dive and second in the 1 meter dive and Ott taking first in the 1 meter and second in the 3 meter. Aziz and Ott were the only two divers from either school to compete in Saturday’s meet.
“I think we did a great job securing wins for this meet,” Yap said. “The GLIAC championship is around the corner and I am looking forward to it. As of now, we are just going to keep our heads down and push a little harder for the next few weeks.”
The home meet wraps up the January competition for each team, which now faces the GLIAC Championships from Wednesday, February 14 through Saturday, February 17 at Jenison High School.
