CJ Willert broke the school record in the 100-yard backstroke, but the UW Oshkosh swimming and diving teams finished seventh at the Carthage Classic in Kenosha over the weekend.

“The team swam their hearts out at the Carthage meet and I am beyond proud of them,” diver Abbi Priestley said. “I have seen major improvements from the women’s swim team since the start of the year to now and I’m impressed by their performance by scoring so many points with great attitudes.”

Willert finished with a time of 53.45 in the first leg of the 400-yard medley relay, passing Art Belen’s 53.99 in 1997, to set the new record as the Titans finished eighth in the event.

The men’s team, led by a first-place finish from Joey Jurva on the 3-meter board, finished second from the bottom in the two-day event.

Jurva claimed the top spot in the 3-meter diving competition with a score of 362.60 after finishing runner-up on the 1-meter board with a score of 292.70.

On the women’s side, six UWO swimmers took home top-3 finishes as the Titans finished seventh out of nine teams.

Friday, Francesca Schiro took runner-up honors in the 50-yard freestyle with a season best time of 24.75 before swimming to a first-place Saturday in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:56.50. Schiro followed up with a second-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 53.71.

UWO’s Cadence Showalter took third place in both the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly, finishing with season-best times of 59.08 and 2:15.06, respectively.

Abbi Priestley grabbed first place on both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving boards, recording scores of 452.75 and 441.65, respectively. The Titans continued their strong diving performance with Maya Indiraraj claiming second place on the 3-meter board and third place on the 1-meter board.

Priestley said she was more worried about breaking her personal records than finishing in first place.

“I try to beat my high scores on both 1 and 3-meter boards going into every meet rather than focusing on getting 1st place finish,” she said. “I scored 452.75 on 1-meter and 441.65 on 3-meter, which I know I can do better.”

Priestley said before she competes, she strives for quality over quantity in her practice dives.i

“I strive to make every dive count even if I may have a not so good takeoff,” she said. “My diving routine during meets is tricky to comprehend, we competed 11 dives total. The first 5 dives are volunteers, more easy dives, then the next 6 are optional dives, more harder dives.”

Both the UWO men’s and women’s teams will return to action when they host Lawrence University on Jan. 7 at Albee Hall.