The UW Oshkosh swim and dive Titans traveled to Lawrence University to compete in the Gene Davis Invitational last Saturday, with both teams placing third.
The meet was made up of six teams including UW Oshkosh, Lake Forest College, Lawrence University, St. Norbert College, Ripon College and Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Both the men’s and women’s team placed third out of six. The women’s team ended the meet with 497.5 points and the men’s ended with 478.5 points.
On the men’s team Damen Seremet placed first in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:02.09 out touching the second place swimmer, Zak Pearson from St. Norbert, by over a second. He also came in second in the 50 free with a time of 22.55.
Seremet said that after every meet, he works on what he felt could have gone better.
“Immediately I was very happy with winning the event, “Seremet said. “I always feel like I could have pushed more in a race, but it’s hard to compare my results to my performance with how broken down my body is in the middle of the season. “It’s more important to focus on correcting the mistakes I made after the meet and invest more into the process.
Seremet also swam the breast leg in the 200 medley relay which placed second along with Alex Ward swimming back, Leo Ramirez-Gutierrez swimming fly, and Drew Davis bringing it home with freestyle. The relay time was 1:40.09.
Diver Dylan Edelstien also placed second in the 1-meter diving event with a score of 276.60
The men’s 200 freestyle relay placed first with a time of 1:32.19. The line up was Ward, Ben Knoeck, CJ Willert and Ramirez-Gutierrez.
There were also a lot of impressive fourth place finishes. Chase Millam finished the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:56.01. He also finished the 1650 in 19:31.56. Ward swam the 100 back and his time was 58:09. Ramirez-Gutierrez with the 100 fly in 56.72. Davis swam the 100 free in 52.15. Respectively the men’s 400 freestyle relay also placed fourth with the time 3:33.53 in the line up of Millam, Elias Landolt, Caleb Valdivia and Law Lykins.
On the women’s side, Abbi Priestley took first place in both of her diving events. She scored 440.85 points on the 3 meter and 456.68 points on the 1 meter breaking the school record which was also her own previous record.
The women’s team had quite a few individual swim second place finishers. Bella Cichon took second in both the 100 (time of 1:10.33) and 200 breaststroke (time of 2:39.27). Bee Ecklund swam the 200 back in 2:19.70. Amanda Richards also earned her 50 free place with the time 26.44.
All of the women’s teams relays came in third place, despite being mixed around not too long before the meet due to some athletes being gone from the meet.
The 200 medley relay was led by Sienna Della-Peruta swimming back, Cichon in the breast, Cadence Showalter in the fly and Richards coming home in the free with an overall time of 1:56.87.
The women’s 200 free relay had the line up of Richards, Brianna Smith, Showalter and Kylee Dinninger that finished with a time of 1:47.03.
Richards said that being on a relay is a good opportunity to make swimming feel like a team sport.
“I love having the privilege to be in relays at swim meets,” Richards said. “Swimming can feel like a very individual sport, but relays help not only unite four swimmers, but the whole team. The excitement and adrenaline fuels me for relays and it’s always another opportunity to seize.”
The women’s 400 free relay had the line up of Showalter, Wesenberg, Ecklund and Della-Peruta with a time of 4:01.75.
Della-Peruta came in at 5:07.50 earning her fourth in the 400 individual medley and fifth in the 200 individual medley with 2:23.39.
“(Within the 400) I tried negative splitting each 50 of each stroke,” Della-Peruta said. “I really tried cruising the fly and pushing a lot in the back. Honestly it’s a really tough race.”
Some other fourth and fifth place finishes was Smith coming in fourth at 19:42.86 in the 1650 free and fifth at 5:40.90 in the 500 free. Wesenberg also finished fourth in the 200 free with a time of 2:06.84. Elizabeth Fritz came in fifth at 20:34.70 in the 1650, one place behind Smith.
The swim and dive team’s next meet is at St. Norbert College on Nov. 18. The meet will begin at 1 p.m.
