Sports

Lakers turn attention to conferences after dominating meet

By Curtis Kalleward GVL Staff Writer
1/31/2010

A dominating performance from top to bottom for Grand Valley State University's women's swimming and diving team on Saturday gave visiting Northern Michigan University a lot to think about for its 433-mile drive back home. The Lakers defeated the Wildcats 162-70.

"Everything went pretty well today considering we were in between times and didn't necessarily see our best times of the season," said GVSU head coach Andy Boyce. "When you go from heavy training to competing, it's to be expected, but some girls had very good times today."

The 92-point scoring difference marked the meet as the biggest win of the season for the Lakers, who never gave the Wildcats a fighting chance. GVSU took first place in 12 of the day's 13 events, finishing 1-2-3 in 8 victories. Sophomore diver Karen Verbrugge was the belle of the ball, breaking school records in both the 1 meter and 3 meter dives.

Though they saw NMU as a less formidable foe than prior opponents, the Lakers still approached the meet as an important competition.

"I don't think that the athletes were tapering at all today," Boyce said. "We have the conference meet coming up and we can only have 18 from each team score at nationals while the rest of them just swim for exhibition. We don't have all 18 slots filled yet on either side so there are still four or five who are competing to make those spots."

GVSU's men's team, not appearing in the water because NMU does not feature a varsity men's aquatics program, was still quite prevalent in the stands.

"The Northern Michigan meet is a fun event because the guys aren't competing," said junior swimmer Erin Kinney. "They're cheering for us and the focus is only on us. It's different for a change."

The athletes will ease up their training and preparation during the next two weeks, resting their muscles and cleaning up techniques in hope of improving their performances.

"The conference meet is one of the most fun events of the year because everyone competes at their hardest level and turns in their best times," Kinney said.

The Lakers will once again face steep competition from Ashland University and rival Wayne State University, Boyce said. GVSU has not yet competed against Ashland this year, but the team lost at Wayne State 189.5-110.5 earlier this season.

"Wayne State is definitely our biggest competition," said junior swimmer Kim Baughman. "Last year, it came down to our two teams. Hopefully, we can pull out ahead of them because last year we only beat them in the duals by one point. It was very close."

The Lakers will once again have to travel east to Wayne State, the host school for the GLIAC Conference Championships. The meet is slated for Feb. 10-13. Though swimming at home sometimes sets precedence over the visiting squad, the Lakers believe they can still defeat the Warriors and the rest of the conference, Baughman said.

"The home team is always at an advantage, but we have swam at their pool this year so we are at least familiar with it," she said. "We're just going to go into the meet confident and hope for the best."

ckalleward@lanthorn.com

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