The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving teams kicked off the season with an alumni exhibition meet on Oct. 5 at the Williams Center.

At the meet, all current swimmers were divided into two co-ed teams of white and purple. The meet started with a mixed 200-yard medley relay and alumni were invited to join in and compete in any of the events as they pleased.

“It’s just a great opportunity for our team to get up and race and then to welcome back some of their old teammates and incorporate both the current team and the former teammates. It’s a nice way to kind of kick off our season,” said head coach Elise Knoche.

Chandler Lewis, a recent graduate, said he is really excited for the freshman class to be a part of the team as it was the most memorable part of his college career.

Lewis graduated May 2019 and was on the men’s swim and dive team all four years at UW-W. He said he is looking forward to following the team as the season and the years go on.

“They’re young. So I think that as the years go on, they’re going to get better. And I’m excited to see as the program develops, leaders come forward,” Lewis said.

Junior Zachary Noll said it was nice to see former teammates, as he knew many of them.

“I know just about every single one. We’re all close, really close knit and we stay close knit even when we’re alumni,” said Noll.

Noll is looking forward to the season already and hopes that the team will be able to win conference again.

“I would like to win conference again, because last year I had a down year. And I think that our team is a little bigger this year, and I think that we can place top three in the conference as a team. So It’d be great if we could do that, because that’s a step up from last year,” Noll said.

The first regular season meet will be Oct. 12 at Illinois Tech. Then the Warhawks travel to Schroeder Aquatic Center in Brown Deer for the annual All-Wisconsin Invitational on Oct. 19.