Swim and dive teams begin new season
Natalie Saeger
Issue date: 10/20/08 Section: Sports
The UW-Eau Claire swimming and diving team and the Blugolds new head coach got their feet wet in the first meet of the 2008-09 season Friday night, losing a close race against NCAA Div. II Minnesota State University-Mankato.
The women Blugolds scored 97 points to Mankato's 100, while the men came away with 100 and Mankato scored 197.
Head coach Art Brandt said he was pretty happy with the team's overall performance on Friday, adding the times this year were much better after comparing last year's times.
On the women's side, there were four first place finishes.
Freshman Nicole Dorvinen won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of two minutes and 15.07 seconds.
"I decided to sprint the first 100, and try to hold onto it for the second 100," Dorvinen said. "The girl next to me ended up dying and I pulled out the win that way."
Junior Ann Grossklaus took the top spot in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:03.61, while also snatching up a second place finish in the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 56.00.
During the last 50 of the 200 Grossklaus said she could see all of the girls were really close and tried to get ahead of them by taking fewer breaths during the last 25 and really kicking it up for the last 10 yards.
"It was pretty amazing that I beat Mankato because they're Div. II and they're pretty competitive," Grossklaus said.
Bringing in two first place finishes for the women Blugolds was sophomore Angie Bakula in the 1000 and 500-yard freestyles. In the 1000-yard freestyle, Bakula swam to a final time of 11:06.72 and in the 500 a time of 5:26.59.
Claiming top honors for distance on the men's side was sophomore Ben Macaladad in the 1000-yard freestyle. Macaladad clinched first with a time of 10:26.87.
Going into the race Macaladad said he wanted to beat the swimmer who beat him last year.
"I paced with him and stayed with him up to the 500 and picked it up past that point. I guess he didn't have enough gas left in the end," he said.
The women Blugolds scored 97 points to Mankato's 100, while the men came away with 100 and Mankato scored 197.
Head coach Art Brandt said he was pretty happy with the team's overall performance on Friday, adding the times this year were much better after comparing last year's times.
On the women's side, there were four first place finishes.
Freshman Nicole Dorvinen won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of two minutes and 15.07 seconds.
"I decided to sprint the first 100, and try to hold onto it for the second 100," Dorvinen said. "The girl next to me ended up dying and I pulled out the win that way."
Junior Ann Grossklaus took the top spot in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:03.61, while also snatching up a second place finish in the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 56.00.
During the last 50 of the 200 Grossklaus said she could see all of the girls were really close and tried to get ahead of them by taking fewer breaths during the last 25 and really kicking it up for the last 10 yards.
"It was pretty amazing that I beat Mankato because they're Div. II and they're pretty competitive," Grossklaus said.
Bringing in two first place finishes for the women Blugolds was sophomore Angie Bakula in the 1000 and 500-yard freestyles. In the 1000-yard freestyle, Bakula swam to a final time of 11:06.72 and in the 500 a time of 5:26.59.
Claiming top honors for distance on the men's side was sophomore Ben Macaladad in the 1000-yard freestyle. Macaladad clinched first with a time of 10:26.87.
Going into the race Macaladad said he wanted to beat the swimmer who beat him last year.
"I paced with him and stayed with him up to the 500 and picked it up past that point. I guess he didn't have enough gas left in the end," he said.
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