Sports

GVL / Lindsey Waggoner
The Lakers won 24 of 26 events against Findlay.

Swimmers, divers propel Senior Day triumphs

By Curtis Kalleward GVL Staff Writer
1/17/2010

The Grand Valley State University men's and women's swimming and diving teams celebrated their final home meet of the season in exceptional fashion this past Saturday against the University of Findlay.

"I was pleased with everything we did today," said GVSU head coach Andy Boyce. "The women were able to come back from (last week's) loss to Wayne State University and swim well, and the men were able to build on the excitement of last week's win."

The two squads took a combined 24-of-26 possible first-place finishes against the Oilers, including a perfect 13-for-13 on the men's side. Coming off of several close races against Wayne State, some swimmers found the Oilers squad to be less of a test than usual.

"Findlay wasn't as challenging of a meet as Wayne State," said junior swimmer Kim Baughman. "The loss didn't really affect us negatively. We turned in some good times and we always train hard during the week."

The home pool advantage and strong fan turnout added to the day's energy for the athletes. Fourteen soon-to-be-graduated athletes, including senior swimmer Matt Witkowski, were honored along with their parents before the meet as part of the Senior Day festivities.

"It's always nice to go out with a bang at our own pool," he said. "Everyone came together for our last home meet to make it exciting, but it was a bittersweet night for me. It's been a long four years, but it's coming to an end. The best part was having my friends and family there to watch me."

The seniors' teammates stepped their game up as well, using the excitement of the meet to boost their abilities. Sophomore swimmer Rafael Santos broke the school record in the 100 meter backstroke while junior diver Patrick VanDommelen qualified for the NCAA national championship meet in the 1 meter dive.

The Lakers now have nine out of a possible 10 relay squads slated as qualifiers for nationals.

"VanDommelen's accomplishment brought us up to 26 qualified athletes, much more than we had at this time last year," Boyce said. "We're looking forward to more people qualifying for nationals at the conference championships in a couple of weeks."

There were stumbling points, however. Baughman, who finished fifth in the 50 meter freestyle race, said she struggled due to her own equipment malfunctioning.

"My personal races were not where I wanted them to be," she said. "I just got new goggles for Christmas, and they kept filling up with water. I didn't have them tight enough to my face."

The teams have a full weekend ahead of them, with a Friday competition in Hope and another on Saturday in Indianapolis.

"We're trying to get into a routine right now for classes and practices with the weekend coming up," Baughman said. "We'll definitely have the goggle situation fixed."

After this weekend, the teams will rest until the GLIAC championships, which start on Feb. 10 in Detroit.

"We're not that concerned about Hope and Indianapolis," Witkowski said. "We're going to train and get ready for the conference championship."

ckalleward@lanthorn.com

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