By Emily Leclair

Dec. 9, 2015

The UW-Whitewater men’s and women’s swim and dive team finished fourth and third of six teams, respectively, at the Wheaton College Invitational on Dec. 4 and 5. The ’Hawks will not compete again until Jan. 23 in a triangular meet against Lake Forest College and Lawrence University.

The men finished fourth and the women took third after the first day of competition in Wheaton, Illinois.

“Our team in the past years has always placed fourth, so this weekend was a really good meet for us,” junior Grace Devine said. “We came in behind two really fast D3 teams in the nation. We had awesome swims all across the board and really came together as a team”

Junior Josh Kanute led the men, finishing fourth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:38.50. Kanute also took sixth in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:55.27.

Teammate junior Spencer Twining helped the team with a fourth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 58.72, while junior Daniel Bielski placed fourth in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:53.72.

Junior Sarah Arteaga finished third in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:09.14 to lead the women on day one of competition.

Teammate junior Margaret Lotzer followed, placing fourth in the 500-yard freestyle, while sophomore Michaela Matthys took fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke and freshman Erin Hawker placed fifth in the 200-yard IM.

“This meet is prelim-final, which means if you score top 16 in a race, you come back and swim it again at night,” Kanute said. “It was definitely an exhausting weekend, but it was good training for our biggest meet which is also prelim-final.”

On the second day of competition, the men finished fourth with 564 points and the women took third place with 531 points.

Bielski led the men on the second day of competition, placing third in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 51.92 and taking fifth in the 100-yard IM with a time of 54.90, while junior Alex Carroll followed, placing fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:09.22.

Hawker led the women on the second day with a third-place finish in the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:38.12.

Freshman Jessica James finished fifth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:00.31, while senior Stacey Kincade took fifth in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 18:02.82 to close the competition.

“I think we just need to still focus on the details, like our turns and breakouts,” Devine said. “The little things that will make us that much better at the end of the year.”

The ’Hawks will compete in a triangular meet against Lake Forest and Lawrence at 1 p.m. on Jan. 23 in Appleton, Wisconsin.

“After the break is really when we hit the peak of the season with the highest intensity and practice and the most yards,” Kanute said.