ELSAH, IL – The swimming and diving team divided today for the annual Gold and Blue Intra-squad meet with the Gold team using its depth in diving to overcome the Blue team 117-100. With joy and excitement the teams challenged each other, swam in a variety of different events and set some fast times. The level of enthusiasm and encouragement was high and all left feeling uplifted and positive.
The Gold team took the lead early with a win in the 200 Medley Relay. Junior captain
Tyler Loechner, sophomore
Joanna Patzwald, junior Andy Furbush and freshman Nicole LePoidevin swam a great time that the Blue team couldn't match. With a third place as well, they took a quick lead. The Blue team fought back, overcoming a lifetime best swim by Patzwald, in the 200 Free with juniors
Jenna Mehlenbacher and Shelby Miller going 1-3 respectively to take the majority of the points and pull within 3 points of the lead. In the 50 Free, the Blue team again dominated the points with freshman Josh Harmon winning in 23.08. Loechner pushed Harmon the whole way to swim a lifetime best for himself of 23.61. Fellow junior Karsten Olsen notched a season best time 28.48 to take 4
th and freshman Josephine Finen got a season best (35.67) as well in the event. Blue expanded their led in the 200 IM with senior Zach Harmon and LePoidevin in a tight battle throughout with Harmon pulling out the win in 2:35.08. With junior
Makaela Thompson's near lifetime best 2:46.99, the Blue team took a strong lead into the 1 meter diving event.
Gold used their depth on the diving boards to retake the lead. Loechner and Furbush went 1-2 for the Gold team with freshman Devon Baggs completing the Gold sweep. Furbush then dove into the lanes for the 100 Fly and came up with the win in 57:04 to help Gold maintain their lead. Blue came back in a big way in the 100 Free with Z. Harmon and Thompson going 1-2 to jump back out in front. In the 100 Back, Blue continued to dominate the swimming events with another win for J Harmon in 1:01.69. Gold came back in the 500 Free with a win by Loechner with a great time of 5:13.39. Two new swimmers showed courage and determination to take on this distance event and came out smiling – freshman Finen and junior Shelby Miller – so kudos to them. Heading into the 3 meter diving event, Blue held the lead but it was not a commanding lead.
The 3 meter event was again dominated by Gold with Loechner earning his second win on the boards and Baggs taking her second third place to close the gap with Blue to only 3 points. With a win by Patzwald, in the last 25 of the race, in the 100 Breast (1:18.60) the Gold team squeaked ahead by 3 points heading into the last relay. The Gold relay team of Furbush, Patzwald, LePoidevin and Olsen won the 200 Free relay to secure the meet win for their team.
It was a fun and exciting meet with some fast swims, fun swims and lots of great support. The Gold and Blue will come back together next weekend, Oct 29
th when they travel to Lincoln, IL to take on Lincoln College in the first dual meet of the year.
