By Emily Leclair

Nov. 11, 2015

The UW-Whitewater men’s and women’s swim and dive team finished third out of three teams after two days of competition at the Phoenix 1-2-3 against UW-Green Bay and St. Cloud Univeristy (Minnesota) in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The meet included a team from each athletic division. St. Cloud represented Division I, Green Bay represented D-II, and UW-W was the D-III team.

“We kind of go in with the expectation of getting third, but it’s more so a chance to compete against people who are out of our range of competitiveness and at that higher level,” junior Josh Kanute said. “So it’s a good chance to work on times and you want to get times that will scare teams in your conference because they all go online eventually.”

After day one of competition on Nov. 6, both the men’s and women’s team placed third of three teams.

Kanute led the men, finishing third in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:53.21.

Freshman Jonathan Jaworski helped UW-W by finishing fifth in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.20 and freshman Peter Loftus finished in 11th place in the 200-year individual medley (IM) with a time of 2:03.90 with the team finishing day one with a team score of 130.

Junior Sarah Arteaga helped lead the women with a seventh place finish in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:14.90, while freshman Erin Hawker followed finishing eighth with a time of 2:14.98.

Junior Margaret Lotzer finished in eighth place in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:20.36 to end the first day of competition with a team score of 118.

“This is my third time attending this meet, and it is such a good experience for all of us to have,” junior Grace Devine said. “Racing D-I and D-II teams is a little overwhelming at first, but it makes us that much better as swimmers.

On the second day of competition on Nov. 7, Kanute led the men with a third place finish in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:48.03.

Junior Dan Bielski took fourth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 53.99 and finished fifth in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:58.80.

Senior Keefer Kuhl placed sixth for both the 1-meter dive and the 3-meter dive with scores of 221.40 and 242.25, respectively.

“As a team, we really came together really quick and had a lot of chemistry,” Kanute said. “We have a lot of really good freshman recruits this year and the people who stay here who are already on the team have been training hard and already improving.”

For the women, sophomore Michaela Matthys finished first in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 58.63 and finished fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:10.29.

Hawker helped UW-W, finishing second in the 200-yard breaststroke and fourth in the 400-yard IM with times of 2:32.95 and 4:48.25, respectively.

Arteaga followed with a fourth-place finish in the 400-yard IM and took fifth in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:14.53.

“This is a crucial point in our season because we are increasing intensity at our practices,” Devin said. “With the increased intensity and speed work, we still need to focus on the little things that make us better, like our stroke technique, starts and turns.”

UW-W will face UW-Oshkosh at 6 p.m. on Nov. 13 at the Williams Center Pool in Whitewater.