The Grand Valley State swim and dive teams are heading into the GLIAC conference championships with some momentum, but also with some added motivation to improve.

GVSU’s swim and dive teams ended the regular season Saturday in Indianapolis against the University of Indianapolis, the day after the men and women both swept Hope College 152-74 and 149-90, respectively.

The No. 4 GVSU women (8-3, 4-1 GLIAC) were able to carry their success over the next day against Indianapolis by defeating the No. 14 Greyhounds (3-3, 1-2 GLIAC) 135-99. However, the No. 10 Indianapolis men’s team (3-1, 2-1 GLIAC) would defeat the No.4 Laker men (7-3, 4-1 GLIAC) 122-119.

The men’s meet came down to the very last event of the day, where Indianapolis edged out the Lakers with a time of 3 minutes, 5.93 seconds in the 4×100-freestyle relay, and scored 11 points for their first-place finish. GVSU clocked in at second place at 3:07.38 and tallied four points. The Lakers also finished third in the same event (3:11.90) and scored two points for third place.

“We’ve had some really great times, and some not so great times,” said GVSU head coach Andy Boyce. “It’s tough going back to back days. Overall I was pleased with the performances, but obviously we’d like to come out on top today with the men, but a couple hundredths here or there and it would have been a different outcome.”

Even in defeat, the tight loss may have provided a silver lining for the GVSU men in their preparation for the GLIAC conference meet.

“This will be a little bit of a motivation for us to push it and beat Indianapolis and Wayne State,” Boyce said. “Both those teams will push us at the conference championships.”

This was the third time this year the swim and dive teams had to swim back to back days. However, these two days of meets may have been the hardest to overcome.

GVSU’s meet against Hope started at 5 p.m. Friday in Holland and Saturday’s meet against the University of Indianapolis began at 1 p.m.

“We came back last Friday to our apartment at 11 (p.m.),” said freshman Sven Kardol. “We had to get up at 5:30 in the morning and sit on a bus to Indianapolis. It was exhausting.”

The chemistry GVSU’s swim teams have managed to develop could be one reason for the success in the pool this regular season.

“It’s one big family and everyone knows everyone,” Kardol said. “They support each other and it’s nice to have someone at practice to keep pushing you and motivating you.”

GVSU will now set their sights on the GLIAC championships, which run from Feb. 8 to 11 in the Jenison Aquatic Center.

“I think the team is really strong,” said freshman Sarah Roeser. “We’ve been training really strong, and there’s a drive there that gives us a great chance to win this year. I am really excited to see what’s going to happen in conferences.”

bderouin@lanthorn.com