The UW-Whitewater swimming and diving teams were defeated by the UW-Eau Claire Blugolds on Senior Day Jan.27 at the Williams Center.

The men’s team fell to 6-2 overall and 1-2 in the conference after losing 184-107. The women were narrowly defeated with a score of 153-141, dropping them to 7-1 on the season, 2-1 in the WIAC.

Despite the loss, the Warhawks had some highlights throughout the meet, including eleven first-place finishing times. Among those was freshman butterfly specialist Jessica Lenhart, who cruised to victory in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:10.33.

“The 200 is my best event,” Lenhart said.  “I basically exclusively train fly, so I am really happy with that time. I’ve only swam it one other time at the Carthage meet in November, so I thought that was a really good time for in season and I am really looking forward to swimming it at conference.”

Freshman Olivia Theobald and senior Michaela Matthys both won two events each, while sophomore Bailey Weston and junior Erin Hawker pitched in with one event victory each throughout the meet.

For the men, freshman Zach Noll won the 1000 freestyle with a time of 10:09.31, touching out the second-place finisher by one one-hundredth of a second. Senior Sam Piette and junior Chandler Lewis both won their respective events as well.

Head coach Joel Rollings said that the freshmen swam exceptionally well today.

“We have a really good core nucleus of freshmen,” Rollings said.  “On the women’s side, Olivia Theobald and Jessica Lenhart, just two of many that swam out of their minds and really took on a big load for us and tried to score some points. On the guys’ side, Zach Noll and Tyler Chatterton, again two freshmen out of many that really did a good job. It’s a very young team with a pretty good future I think.”

Saturday’s meet was the last meet of the season at home for the Warhawks, and the last ever home meet for the senior class.

“It was pretty emotional, especially right before I swam my last event,” senior David Joerres said.  “I teared up just a little bit. I was like ‘this is the last time I’m racing in this pool’”.

Joerres came in fourth place in the 500 freestyle, his last event in Whitewater’s pool.

“These last four years have been really special for me,” Joerres said. “Swimming on this team with these people, it’s just been an amazing experience.”

The Warhawks will take on the UW-La Crosse next Saturday, Feb. 3, their final dual meet of the season before the WIAC Conference Championships. The meet will start at 1:00 PM.