Feb. 11, 2011 By Joe Walsh
The UW-Whitewater women’s swimming and diving team defeated UW-La Crosse in its last meet of the season 145.50-97.50 Feb. 7 in the Williams Center Pool.
The meet ended with a bang for the Warhawks by breaking three school records.
Sierra Becker broke the diving record off the three-meter board, posting a number of 268.95.
Kayla Martin’s time of 10:25.43 in the 1,000-yard freestyle is the new school record.
Michaela Matthy’s time of 24.72 was the fastest in the 50-yard freestyle in the meet and in program history.
“This season has gone very well,” head coach Joel Rollings said. “The women are progressing a lot faster than I thought they would.”
With those three women breaking records and winning their event, three more Warhawk swimmers also won.
Sophomore Margaret Lotzer time of 1:59.36 was the fastest in the 200-yard freestyle. Sophomore Sarah Arteaga time of 2:13.86 put her in first place in the 200-yard individual medley and freshman Stephanie Haebig touched the wall at a time of 1:03.50 in the 100-yard backstroke.
With the conference championship coming up and nationals following that, Rollings said the women’s team has a good chance of breaking more records.
“We have a lot of women that are division one caliber, that are going to do some pretty great things,” Rollings said. “I think we’ll set a lot of records.”
Rollings knows the seniors are a big part of this team, and he expressed admiration for all of them.
“The seniors are incredible top to bottom, I don’t even know how many All-Americans are in that group,” Rollings said.
Joe Devroy wins two events in men’s loss
The UW-Whitewater men’s swimming and diving team lost its last meet of the season to UW-La Crosse 132-111 Feb. 7 in the Williams Center Pool.
“This year has been kind of a rebuilding year for the men’s team,” Rollings said. “The season has gone very well, we have great senior leadership and they’re doing a really nice job of setting the culture and tone for the program.”
Senior Joe Devroy posted two wins for the Warhawks in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard backstroke.
Sophomore Josh Kanutes also won two individual events in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle.
Sophomore Sam Bowman added to the win total with a season-best time of 10:18.93 on the 1000-yard freestyle and sophomore Spencer Twining collected the Warhawks last win with a top time in the 100-yard breaststroke, 1:01.02.
Four first-place finishes by the men’s team were not enough to get the win, but Devroy praised his teammates’ efforts. “Coming off of this meet I know the points don’t show it, but we really swam well,” Devroy said. “We are having a great season. Everybody is really stepping up and fulfilling their needs for what they need to do for the team.”
The conference championship is the next event the men’s swimming and diving team will participate in and Rollings feels confident about the opportunities that lie ahead.
“I feel pretty strong about going into conference and you don’t know what will happen after that, there is some really talented athletes on this team,” Rollings said.
With the conference championship deciding the men’s fate a rebuilding men’s team could get a bid for nationals.
“If we swim up for the occasion at conference we could probably send a relay,” Devroy said.
Both the men’s and women’s teams are now headed to compete in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships. The WIAC Championships are scheduled to begin Feb. 19 in Brown Deer, Wisconsin.
